On the night of the election I could not help but feel a since of pride when the results came in. No matter what your political affiliation or who you voted for, a mile stone had been hit in the United States of America. America had elected its first African American President. A dream that had been fulfilled only a handful of decades after Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. I have believed that we had hit that point outside of politics, but the election of Obama proved that we had hit that bench mark.

Almost a year ago I was at the MPI MeetDifferent Conference in Houston, Texas. It was February and here we are talking about Meeting Different. Here our industry was talking about breaking the mold and changing the world at work. Almost a foretelling of things to come in 2008 and 2009.

While I was at the conference I had a conversation with two dear friends from the Tennessee Chapter of MPI. We talked about how my generation and younger generations see the world. We do not really look at someone and think about their color, we look at someone and see a person. The cultural melting pot has always been part of our life. Now, the future generations, will never know a world where we do not have an African American president.

I am not saying that there are not people in my generation or younger generations that do not feel feel or promote racial tension. There are many places in our country that still teach hate, they do not accept the differences and the creativity of a wonderful God.

Today our nation has something to celebrate. We have elected the first African American President, we have a peaceful exchange of power. We can have 1.8 million people gather on the National Mall in peace. I celebrate with America for that fact. I pray for the success of President Obama and I pray for his family. I thank former President Bush for his service. I cannot imagine leading a country under the circumstances he faced. I cannot imagine taking on the responsibility of president during these times either. No one should want President Obama to fail. We need him to be a successful President. He is my President, I will stand with him when I agree with him and I will disagree with him when I believe differently. We are Americans, not Democrats or Republicans.

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