AND COMES THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY

As I type this Post, I am sitting in my office watching dawn break over Lake Michigan. It is not alone the dawn of a new day in Chicago, it is the dawn of a new day, a new era in America. Whichever candidate one supported in our Presidential election, no one can deny that the election was the more than "the passing of the torch to a new generation of Americans," it was a validation of our democratic principles and a realization of the dream that "any American can grow up to be President."

Much as I often find him beneath contempt, seeing Reverend Jesse Jackson reduced to tears overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment in Grant Park last night evoked our country's history, the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement and ts ultimate triumph; listening to Congressman John Lewis speak to the meaning of President-Elect Obama's election was a history lesson through which men and women of my generation and many of yours have lived. And watching the Obama Family last night and over these past 21 months has been a celebration of the best that America can be.

Today, I can honestly state, as can each of you, that to have lived through this moment in American history is a gift; I am grateful to have lived to experience it.

Rwexler