The magic of it all

As Barack Obama is about to take the oath of office, we are compelled by our personal histories to take stock of what his presidency means to us.

Mere days stand between now and his inauguration, yet we are no less stunned and elated than we were when the results were announced in November. Now that we have had time to actually internalize what his presidency means to us, the election is no longer surreal, because the reality of what this nation is facing looms before us, growing more daunting every day.

In the hours leading up to and immediately following the election, our feelings were best summed up as those of pride and deep emotion as the country elected its first black president.

Indeed, this election holds deep meaning for us as African Americans having experienced life as children in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, and whose parents were born in the early decades of the 20th Century. We could choose to dwell on what was. However, we choose to focus on what can and will be. In recent days, we are simply feeling hopeful with great anticipation of the impact the new president will have on the lives of all Americans and other men, women and children around the world.

In our minds, the fact that Barack Obama is black has become just very sweet icing on the cake, because the day-to-day issues most immediately affecting our family, our friends and us have relatively little to do with race. They have more to do with the unsound economy, unemployment, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, substandard education, and other social/political/economic issues - all of which Obama has promised to resolve during his leadership.

Does this mean that the magnitude of this historical moment has been lost? Not at all.

It is still certainly powerful, but the true phenomenon is in who he is as a person and the hope that he evokes in so many - not in what he looks like. That is what makes this magic.

Ron and Carolyn O'Neal

Elgin