This day in history

Today is one of those historic days that we will read about in the newspaper in the coming years. Today Barack Obama is inaugurated 44th President of the United States. The TV stations are filming the inauguration and events surrounding it, which will give our descendants the ability to see the events rather then just reading about them.

Today a new era begins in American history. Many of us born in the early and middle part of the last century never expected to live to see an historic event like the one happening today in Washington, D.C. My mother was born in 1921 on a farm in Oklahoma. I was born in 1946 in a hospital in Blackwell, Oklahoma.

My mother and I have voted in every presidential election since we came of age. In 2008, Mom voted even though she was still using a walker. I worked the polls, so two of Mr. Obama's campaign workers picked Mom up and took her to the polls. I cried when I saw my mother walk into the school where I was working. She came in voted and the two workers took her back home.

Today one of the entries in my gratitude journal is giving thanks for both my mother and myself living to see an African-American become president of the United States. America is making progress as proved by the election of Barack Obama to the highest office in the country. America is making progress, but it still has a long way to go. Those of us over the age of 50 who remember and witnessed the events in the last century, which led to this day have the duty to write and blog about our memories of American culture as it was then and give thanks for the changes.