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[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Soon to be President Obama is about to leave for church this am.  The 
District is more crowded than anything I ever ever seen, on television.  It 
is sort of like when Reagan first came to office -- I didn't vote for him, 
either-- with all of the excitement -- even bigger than with Reagan.  

I like the idea that people are feeling good about the present and the 
future.  Much more optimism being expressed, this am,  than I would have 
imagined.

The fact that President Obama is black is not just incidental, for me.  I was 
well into elementary school when public school integration occurred where I 
was reared.  I'm not sure how easy it was for a black person to vote in my 
home-town the year I was born.  My family's Doctor's office, as a child, 
still had black and white, separate, waiting rooms -- There were no signs, 
that was already gone, but the people still separated themselves.

Though I have never seen a klansman or a race-riot or anything like that, 
except on television; I did see 'what I saw', when I was young, as innocous 
as it seemed at the time.

 The societal and cultural change that I see with a black man being sworn in 
as President today is truly astonishing.  

I didn't vote for the man, and I still don't support the big government 
policies of him,  his party, or the republican party. I think the future will 
show the direction we are ,probably, about to take to be monstrously wrong.

 But , for today;  I feel like our culture has shown some kind of dignity and 
growth with this man becoming President -- no matter the color of his skin.  
Im my own youth, had I considered the idea of a black man as President, it 
would have been laughable.  Today, it is a fact.

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