This land is your land, this land is my land

I felt proud of my country today, for the second time in a very long time. And I do not say that lightly, nor do I say that with remorse. The first time was in November on election night eve when the power of democracy spoke loudly, and the voice of the people was clearly heard. I did not cry today…but I then I was seated in my classroom with two students and two colleagues flanking me. I DID, however, cry Sunday afternoon, listening to Pete Seeger (along with Bruce Springsteen), sing “This Land Is Your Land,” a song I heard him sing on an LP in the 60’s in my bedroom, played in my classroom in the 80’s, triumphantly saw realized in front of my television in ‘08, and celebrated today on January 20, 2009, the day we inaugurated Barack Obama, the 44th President of “these United States.” As a child of the 50’s, a teenager who came of age of the 60’s and saw hoses pointed and dogs loosed on Civil Rights protesters, who heard and internalized the words of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “ I Have A Dream Speech,” who watched in horror at the bombing in Birmingham, the protest at the lunch counter in Greensboro, the bravery of the Little Rock 9, and the march on Selma; this day means a fruition of all those hopes and all those dreams that my fifteen year old self thought died in 1968 on a balcony in Memphis when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and a scant time later in a hotel in California with the assassination of Bobby Kennedy…I am proud of my country who reached deep into its soul and finally saw beyond “the color of ones skin to the content of ones character.”

I believe, as does the generation of my children who ultimately was responsible for electing Barack Obama, that we have a chance to be better…finally. And now, I have hope that my grandson will see the fruition of this potential; I have the faith that it IS really possible...Amen (let it be so).