Dr. King, Barack Obama, and Tiny Tim

It has been a sunny, mostly tolerable day in Streeterville with much open water in the lake. It's currently 23 degrees and mostly dark out, this from the U.S. National Weather Service and the view out the 14th floor windows. Data from the Mini were not available today.

This day, the day set aside in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and all of the sacrifices he made so that the cause of Civil Rights could move forward, is a day for reflection. Reflection on what came before, how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. The election, and imminent inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America is a remarkable event, a historic event. Dr. King's diligence and hard work and that of thousands, perhaps millions of others, have paid off. American society has taken a great stride forward.

Societies move forward in increments, not in great leaps, and thus it has been in the struggle for equality for all men and women, regardless of race, in America. There are still a great many detractors, those who try to hold on to the old ways, those whose souls have been stained by the ugliness of bigotry. America as a whole, however, has moved forward, at least to the extent that a majority of Americans have been able to accept a man of African ancestry as the next leader of the most powerful nation in the world. This is progress.

In a discussion with Babs the other day, she suggested to me that it may be the case that it took an extreme situation to make Mr. Obama's election possible. It took the incredible arrogance and incompetence of 8 years with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, followed by a Republican candidacy that did nothing so much as pander to the most base, ugly, and divisive elements in our society. There may be some truth to that, a reaction to the Republican Party sending America "to Hell in a handcart," so to speak. Nevertheless, America has spoken. We have accepted Barack Obama as our next leader, and have done so with a great deal of hope. Hope for change for the better, hope for a world with less violence and warfare, hope for more and better economic opportunity for all, hope for a society that provides medical services to all its citizens, hope for a society where all of its citizens, not just some elite citizens, have value and hope for the future.

This, to me, is the legacy of Dr. King, the legacy of Barack Obama, and the legacy of all of us who take small, incremental steps every day of our lives to move our society and that of the world around us forward. It takes us all, working in concert, to make a difference and we have done just that. As Tiny Tim told us, "God bless us every one."