Optimism Pause

Photo credit: Larry Downing / Reuters http://nbcnews.to/WCV7Jx

It was all things Obama, all day long, and the fact that it was Martin Luther King Day made it all the more poignant. On a frigid January day, America seem to suspend cynicism and come together over the inauguration of their President. Hundreds of thousands crowded the mall to be a part of history and millions more watched on TV.  The Obama family with playful wide smiles and expressed love beamed a shining example of the family ideal, and the President and the First Lady showed what a partnership based on love and mutual respect looks like.

Optimism is alive and well in America - and here too, in my heart. All things are possible - with the will of the people. When the people decide that discrimination and violence has to end -- it will. When the people decide that there is no room for poverty in a country of excess - it will end. Change will start with the people deciding what kind of society they want to build, and then demanding it. Love has to grow bigger than the hatred and fear. And so until that day comes, today was a pleasant pause of optimism.

"Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."  - Martin Luther King Jr.