A few months ago I was walking with my daughter S, her hand in mine, and I thought “her little 2 year old hand feels like nothing else I have ever touched.” The softness (still baby soft and smooth) and the weight (so light, yet solid lying in my hand) do not feel like anything else. In writing, metaphors or similes are used to describe- “soft as,” “feels like,” “just as”- but there are no metaphors, no approximation, for the feeling of her little hand in mine.

Similarly, I believe there is nothing else- at least in my life experiences- that felt like the space between hope and reality that many of us inhabited between August and November 4th. The suspended space- of possibility, of hope, of “do I dare believe this could happen?”- held in bated breath; and then, at 9:00 pm (Mountain Time) on November 4th a release of breath and tears and confirmation: yes, hope is suddenly a reality. A reality that had been held in question- could it? will we?- until it just was. Yes, we did. The recognition of the reality that we elected the first African American, bi-racial person to the office of President is still a feeling that I cannot fully put into words; there are no metaphors, no approximation, for that feeling either.

So much has been, and will be, written or spoken by people much more eloquent and consequential than I about these events, that I confess I feel somewhat silly writing this. Just this week, I have heard both the Mayor of Denver and the Governor of Colorado speak on this very topic. But as many of you know I have written these Martin Luther King Day reflections for the past 9 or 10 years. This year’s Martin Luther King Day’s celebration is inextricably linked with the inauguration and all that it symbolizes. And there is so much that has been floating around in my mind over the last few months, both formed and echoed by a national conversation. So, please indulge and forgive me for repeating what I know will be expressed by people all across the country.

Beyond the indescribable personal feeling about the election, the reality is that the citizens of the United States did something no other country has: a white majority elected a person of color to the country’s highest office. As we approach Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, this single fact gives much cause for reflection and rejoicing. I think it is incredibly poignant that not only did Obama accept the presidential nomination for the Democratic Party on the 45th anniversary of the March on Washington, but that he also will become the President of the United States the day after we honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s birth date and the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. Clearly, our country’s civil rights struggles are directly tied to the reality of Obama’s election. Indeed, “Obama’s ascension to the highest office in the land is possible only because so many men, women and children – abolitionists, civil rights advocates and their allies – stood up for justice across the centuries” (Jennifer Holliday, Teaching Tolerance Web site).

In February, I had the amazing, humbling highlight of personally meeting some of those people who stood up for justice, the Little Rock Nine. I had the great honor of providing transportation for one the nine, Jefferson Thomas, and his wife. Mr. Thomas is truly one of the kindest and most inspiring persons I have ever had the privilege to meet. 50 years ago, as high school students, these nine individuals literally risked their lives to gain their right to an equal education, by integrating Little Rock High School in 1958. Jefferson Thomas’ and his fellow Little Rock Nine’s sacrifice, are part of the legacy of civil rights heroes- both those known and unknown- who made November 4th and January 20th possible. It is truly awesome (as in awe-inspiring, not the 80’s vernacular for cool) that in his lifetime Jefferson Thomas went from being turned away from Little Rock High School by the National Guard to witnessing, next Tuesday, an African American man take the oath of office for the President of the United States. How rare and wonderful that someone lives to see the impact of his actions magnified tenfold. As Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, President of Spelman College and author, wrote after election night, “When the announcement of Sen. Barack Obama’s victory came, the cheers and tears in the swell of the largely African-American crowd at Spelman were mirrored in the faces captured by news broadcasters at the multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational gatherings in Grant Park in Chicago, Times Square in New York, and at the gates of the White House in Washington. Surely it was a night to remember. Regardless of political affiliation, we can all take pride … and relish the social significance to this and every generation of the success of President-elect Obama, the first African American man to overcome this most symbolic of racial barriers, just 45 years after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. articulated his dream that one day his children – Barack Obama’s generation – would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.”

To be sure, Obama’s election was about so much more than race. To boil this election and Barack Obama’s victory down to solely race does not do him justice, but to ignore the historic significance of the election does not do it justice either. We cannot deny the reality that many thought would never happen in their lifetime; we cannot deny the power of seeing an African American First Family; we cannot deny the struggle for racial justice that has brought us to this place. And as a white person I cannot forget, that even as a shared national experience, I do not truly understand what seeing Barack Obama take the oath of office on Tuesday will mean for my friends of color.

Like Dr. King, President-Elect Obama is a leader of a movement for change in our country. Like Dr. King, President-Elect Obama is representative of something larger of the great promise of our country. Like King, Obama is a symbol of both what has been accomplished and what still remains to be done. In his historic speech on race last spring, Obama cautioned, “I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle.”

And so on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day we certainly have much to celebrate- a very bright moment in our nation’s very mottled history of race and racism. And we cannot be complacent, believing that this holiday only commemorates the past and “once was;” because the movement still has much to accomplish. Our country still has work “to 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” (King, “I Have a Dream”) The day is about both celebration and continued commitment to the cause.

As long as Obama is seen not only as exceptional (in the way that any person who is elected President is certainly exceptional), but also as an “exception to…” then our work is not done. As long as people simultaneously feel pride in voting for Obama, and still talk about “those people” or “that neighborhood,” then work still needs to be done. As long as there is still racial discrimination in housing, employment, and the justice system, then we have not fully reached King’s dream “of freedom for the whole human race and in the creation of a society where all men can live together as brothers, where every man will respect the dignity and the worth of human personality” (King, “The American Dream,” 1961). As long as children of color are disproportionately affected by poverty, poorly funded schools, malnutrition, unemployment, etc. then the work of the civil rights movement must continue.

The march forward must continue for all people who are be forced to live on the margins of society, because of ethnicity, economic status, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. For me the history of this election is sadly diminished by the fact that this election was not a victory for the LGBT community and their allies. At the same time that a majority of people voted for a person of color as President, a majority of citizens in four states also voted to deny equality to gay people either by denying (Arizona and Florida) or taking away (California and Arkansas) their civil rights. So, yes, there are still civil rights that must be won. When people are blatantly discriminated against because of their identity, we have not fulfilled the promise of our country. No matter what attempts are made to couch or explain- as we have clearly seen throughout history, prejudice can be given many “logical explanations”- these votes were about discrimination.

Also, immigrant rights may have taken a back burner in recent national conversation, but the issue is absolutely on fire across the country. There are many policy issues which need to be addressed regarding “the best way to reform America’s immigration system but the debate has been framed by vitriolic anti-immigrant – and particularly anti-Latino – rhetoric and propaganda,” even in the in the mainstream press and created an atmosphere in which hateful rhetoric has become routine. (ADL, http://www.adl.org/civil_rights/) As one example on the legal front, The New York Times reported that “last week, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, declared that immigrants do not have the constitutional right to a lawyer in a deportation hearing, and thus, have no right to appeal on the grounds of bad legal representation. Mr. Mukasey overturned a decades-old practice designed to ensure robust constitutional protection for immigrants” (January 13, 2009). This is a much larger issue than I have space to address in this reflection, but it absolutely one where over the next few years our country will show whether it will truly live up to its ideals. We also cannot forget that the United States is inextricably linked to an international community- genocide, war, loss of precious human life- remind us of the ongoing fight to bring change and peace across the world.

And still, we should take a moment to relish. The excitement and hopefulness of the election and the next few days can serve to renew us. I am emboldened by the knowledge that change can be won- not just in an election- but in the fight, in all the many steps over many years that individual people took to get to this moment in history.

This Martin Luther King Day and the inauguration which follows fills me with a sense of something very unique – the weight of history as it happens- the sense of knowing that these particular moments have great impact; they will, in fact, change our world.
Like the particular weight of S’s hand on mine, this weight feels wonderful- and is much too fleeting. These moments will become a memory, a story that we will try to articulate in the future, never quite able to. There are no words to fully explain a feeling unlike any other.

As I hold S’s hand when we march in Denver’s Marade on Monday, what I hope she will absorb from these moments- moments which she will be told about as her life’s lore, because while she is living in it, she is too young to share in the collective memory- is that she absorbs the feeling of it. That she’ll never know the time when a black man couldn’t become President; that over the next four years as she begins to have formative memory, her first President will be Barack Obama is amazing to me! I cannot know yet how that formative reality will impact her outlook on race and identity. But I fervently wish that she will absorb all the sense of hope and possibility of this time and the reality that change does happen; that she will know in some deep, indescribable way that she can be, can do, can change anything. That she knows the power of her touch. And more importantly, that she feels a responsibility to reach out into the world.

Indeed, I hope that is the feeling we all gain.