Lift Every Voice and Sing

Well, it has happened- what seemed only the stuff of movies has become reality: we have an African American president. As President Obama said, it was only six decades ago that his father would not have been served at a DC restaurant, and today, his son took the oath office to the highest position in the land.

It measures what kind of country we are that an African American President took the oath of office in a building made partially by slave labor and will reside in a house that was also made by slaves.

The Rev. Joseph Lowry's prayer was great and had words of hope as well as a word of warning: to not forget where we have come from. He started his benediction with the last verse of the what has been called the "Black National Anthem;" "Lift Every Voice and Sing:"

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, Our God, where we met Thee;
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our God,
True to our native land

We have come a long way. The Dream that Dr. King talked about hasn't been fulfilled simply because Obama has become President. However, it does say something more mighty: that the Dream is alive, that it thrives. We shall overcome, we have overcome and we will overcome.