I have always been proud and grateful to be an American. I watched John F. Kennedy’s inauguration as a sixth-grader. I was filled with hope and pride. My awareness of what being an American meant, was born at that moment.

As a ninth-grader I watched in horror as the young President was shot and killed. Like most Americans, I was glued to the television for that entire weekend. How could this happen? My life changed at that moment as did our country’s future.

I was in college during the turbulence of the anti-war movement. I was ashamed by the way people showed their disapproval. Students on so many campuses bombing buildings destroying years of research that had nothing to do with Vietnam. It felt like my generation had lost their way. I was proud to be an American but not proud to belong to that generation.

I didn’t agree or disagree with having our troops in Vietnam. I did respect our men and women who were serving their country. They hadn’t chosen to go to Vietnam but their pledge to defend the United States meant that they served where the President sent them. I was ashamed when people spat on them when they came back from Vietnam.

The next time I felt great pride in being an American was on September 11, 2001. I watched the attacks and the chaos in New York and cried at the loss of so many lives. But, mixed with grief was amazement at how, when called upon, the citizens of this country can come together and do what has to be done. I was hopeful that this sense of a united people would continue beyond the tragedy of that day. It didn’t. We went back to business as usual within a short period of time.

Today, January 20, 2009, I can not find the words to describe how I feel. Pride, of course, but more than that. I was an Obama supporter from the beginning. I donated several times, and I worked at the local Obama campaign headquarters. This was a first for me. I had never felt so strongly about a candidate that I was motivated to help get that candidate elected. But, Barack Obama was as inspirational to me at the age of 59 as JFK was to the sixth-grade me.

As I watched the swearing in of the first African-American president, my heart swelled and tears streamed down my face. I was watching history being made. I knew that the whole world was watching and I was overcome with pride. In the forty plus years since Martin Luther King gave his I Have a Dream speech this country has come to this day. I felt for the first time what Blacks in this country have gone through. Living in a northern state, I never saw “White’s only” anywhere.

It is an honor to witness this great moment. I also have a sense of responsibility to participate in the change I believe we need. I believed in what candidate Obama talked about. I believe in it even more so today as I listened to President Obama. Change is in the air. Not just because we have an African-American president, but because we have a man in the White House who sees himself as a catalyst and the people of this country as the ones who will make those changes a reality.

I have always been proud to be an American. But, never has that pride shone with the light it does today. God bless Barack Obama. God Bless America.