It's a new day and it's time to fly!

Today is a new day!

Tuesday night we elected our first African American president. It's hard to put to words all of the feelings I had in the instant the news was declared. I thought of all the people in my family and every African American that has passed on. I cried for them...happy and sad tears.

Happy because I know what they fought for all those years before is now coming to light and sad because they are no longer here to witness the fruits of there labor.

I thought of my now grown son and daughter and how they were interpreting this historic occassion. I thought of how I used to say to them, with a mothers optimistic love, that in this world they could be and do whatever they wanted, while knowing deep down in my heart there was always the possibility that they could be held back just by the color of their skin. Now in this instant I finally felt justified in my words to them.

I also in that instant thought of all that lay ahead for our newly elected president. It felt as if I were once again, sending my child off to school for the first time. I was proud that he had grown so quickly and that he was taking such a major step. But then, there was fear again. The fear that the world would somehow hurt my child. That he would have to prove himself as always to be one hundred and fifty percent better than. That he would be constently judged and second guessed at every step of the way, not just because he would hold the most powerful position in the world but also because of the color of his skin.

But in the end I knew it was time...just like I knew I had to let both my son and daughter go out into the the big bad world when it was their time to fly.

So, on this new day it is our time as a people and as a country to fly!

Congratulations President Barack Obama!