THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

I am one of 69,456,897 Americans who voted to elect Barack Obama our 44th President. Millions more of his supporters were too young to vote for him but worked for him nonetheless.

We watched in amazement as this once in a lifetime figure appeared seemingly from out of nowhere to rekindle hope and faith that the American Experiment could again serve our people, our nation, our world. Many of us for the first time in ages or the first time ever enlisted in a campaign. We dug down and contributed a few dollars we never gave before. We contributed shoe leather to go door to door for him. We punched telephone buttons till our fingers hurt.

We did this because we knew we had been presented with gift that had to be opened, nurtured, cherished. We shed tears of joy watching his acceptance speech before tens of thousands of people from around the world in Grant Part Chicago and we will no doubt shed tears of joy watching his inaugural speech before a million or more.

While the first page of the Obama Administration has yet to be turned and success is far from guaranteed, we have come to realize that this is a gift that we have given to ourselves. And so far it is the gift that keeps on giving.