"The world has changed. We now dream in color'

From the official website of the White House, the first act of our new president:

NATIONAL DAY OF RENEWAL AND RECONCILIATION, 2009

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

As I take the sacred oath of the highest office in the land, I am humbled by the responsibility placed upon my shoulders, renewed by the courage and decency of the American people, and fortified by my faith in an awesome God.

We are in the midst of a season of trial. Our Nation is being tested, and our people know great uncertainty. Yet the story of America is one of renewal in the face of adversity, reconciliation in a time of discord, and we know that there is a purpose for everything under heaven.

On this Inauguration Day, we are reminded that we are heirs to over two centuries of American democracy, and that this legacy is not simply a birthright -- it is a glorious burden. Now it falls to us to come together as a people to carry it forward once more.

So in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, let us remember that: "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 2009, a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation, and call upon all of our citizens to serve one another and the common purpose of remaking this Nation for our new century.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

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How can anyone argue with that? How can anyone have fault with it? After the past decades of failures, of political side-taking, of battling over things that are not really that important to most of us who have things like keeping a roof over our heads, and keeping a job, and feeding ourselves and our children - how refreshing it is to see someone finally in power who asks nothing more than that we try to serve each other? It's like wandering in the wasteland and finding someone offering a glass of water and a map and good wishes to you if you journey on, or a solicitation of assistance if you do not wish to.

We have awakened in a new place, a place where it does not matter what shade your skin may be. What matters is what heart it contains and what it is willing to bend and embrace in fellow human beings. I said to my husband last night that the day that a woman is standing on the Capitol steps and takes the stewardship of the nation into her hands, I will feel we have overcome the last hurdle. He said "The glass ceiling breaks slowly, but once it breaks, it is quicker and quicker each time."

I hope the joy will spread to my daughters, that they too will have the same chance in this place, in this world, as their male companions. We all dream - and dreams should never have a limit.