The Obama campaign is giving away 10 tickets to the Presidential Inauguration via an essay contest phrased as, "what does the inauguration mean to you?" Here is my entry:
Exclamation Point
Once in a great while, a nation alters its course through history, casts off its shackles of fear, and turns resolutely to face the challenges of the past, present and future. As its people wake from a nightmare of illogic, indifference and intolerance, they assemble, shoulder to shoulder, ready to overcome old divisions and new obstacles, with reason, determination and humanity. Celebrating their power to chart a new course, they gather as one, having reached an exclamation point. Yes we can!
[photo: March on Washington (Program), 08/28/1963; Bayard Rustin Papers; John F. Kennedy Library; National Archives and Records Administration.]
