Their First President

My sons will not remember Barack Obama's inauguration.

Nor will they remember a time when an African American had never held the highest office in America.

For me, the word president conjures a parade of old white guys.  Nixon was president when I was born, but Carter is the first one I could name.  My first memory of politics is a discussion on the playground in 1980, when I was horrified to discover that a classmate's parents had not voted for Reagan.  At the time, he reminded all of us kids of our grandfathers, and I had no more sophisticated reason for my allegiance.  (I suppose this girl's folks had plenty of reasons, not least of which was the realization that Reaganomics was not going to trickle down to their family farm.)

For Liam and Timothy, at least for the next four years, president will mean a suave, intelligent man with black skin.  I have to believe this will take us a big step closer to racial equality in their generation.