A Letter on Inauguration Day

Dear Chris,
Sometimes I write on here to everybody, and sometimes just to you. Today is a bit of both, I guess. We watched the Presidential Inauguration this afternoon. You had preschool, and I was pleased to find out it was going to be on AFTER your preschool class. It's been a great day; it was Show and Tell at school, you brought Larry the Cucumber, who you've been calling Noya Tuyatumber, and we brought Fina to school to talk about Pets. You were just saying, It's a Fina! It was a lot of fun. You wanted to see Fina when we were all done, but I told you we were going to go home and watch the inauguration.
You were ecstatic. I think you only heard, "we're gonna watch...". You love to watch TV, and on school days you don't get much of it. You chanted about getting to watch the TV all the way home. I tried to tell you we were going to watch Barack Obama, I tried to get you to say his name, but you just said, "Bat Omama". We stopped for McDonald's on the way home, and had a picnic on the floor of the basement, while we watched the Inauguration. I was amazed at how during the processions, you were actually interested. You loved watching the musicians perform, and I think you were partial to all the military people in their pretty fancy uniforms. Me too! We practiced saying Barack Obama, you ranged from "Brato yo mama" to "Ba'k' Yomama" and just "Bat O mama". When he finally came out, we cheered just like the rest of the country, you even clapped and said Yeah too.

You may remember this day, when we watched the 44th President take the Oath of Office. I'd like to think you will. I hope that what you will not remember is that there was even a time when you were alive, when it was considered impossible for an African American to hold the highest public office, the presidency. Not in your lifetime now. I didn't vote for him, but that's not to say I didn't consider it, but there were of his some ideas I didn't agree with. But when he won the election, I couldn't help but join the rest of the country in this overwhelming movement of Hope.

Today, as we watched, I watched you, every time he spoke of hope I looked at you. You didn't sit still for his whole speech, but you sat in my lap for most of it. You are our hope, our country's next generation, Full of Hope. I want you to be full of hope too. All the time. As a country, sure, we've been burned, it's tricky times right now, but yet, we're not going to let it get us down. It's almost like, well, if HE can become President, than Anything is Possible.

Honey, Anything is Possible. With God, Anything is Possible. Remember that.