Hail to the new Commander-in-Chief!

What a marvelous thing we have done, partisanship aside here, that an African-American can be elected President of the United States of America! I was impressed with the dignity in which the leaders of the Republican Party gave respect and homage to Obama's victory and in turn Obama's gracious acceptance speech. These words of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. seem to have been completely fulfilled: '"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."'

Yet it seems to me Rev. King had a bigger vision for our country: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." To me, the vindication of this latter part of the dream comes not on the excitement we share today that an African-American is elected president or tomorrow's dream of an Asian- Indian- or Hispanic-American being elected, but that we see past the color of the skin and it matters not to us what color they are.

Tears of joy are fine for today. It is good to release the pent-up emotion of our forefathers. But today let us begin to further Rev. King's dream by being the first day of beginning to be "color-blind". It is a task that I expect to take many years, perhaps a generation or two, but it ours to take.