President-Elect Obama -- Guardian of History: What can I say that has not been already said about the historic nature of this election? This was, as has been repeatedly uttered, an historic moment and I am forever grateful that I am witness to it. I feel like the burden of George Bush and divisive Republican politics has been lifted from my shoulders. I feel like the dawn of hope has emerged. I wake up every morning and my first thought is that Barack Obama is president and the chill of a new November day is warmed. I still have to pinch myself to make sure that this is not a dream and that those who poisoned the Washington well really have been driven from power. Kudos to the American people who chose to reverse the titanically disastrous course the iceberg of which our nation was poised to hit.

There have been other particularly notable moments in our nation's story. As stated by a news source "When President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in January, he'll be standing on stone that was laid by more than 400 African slaves who helped build the structure from 1792 to 1800." That is history. When he takes his seat in the oval office, January 20, 2009 he will be the first African American to do so in our nation's history. That is monumental history. He stands, of course, on the shoulders of many other giants who risked their lives and often gave their lives to ensure this moment occurred. That is history.

From Frederick Douglas, from the abolitionists, from Harriet Tubman, from Abraham Lincoln, from Medgar Evers, from Rosa Parks, from James Meredith from Martin Luther King from the slane civil rights workers Schwerner, Goodman, Chaney and countless others black and white, men and women, rich and poor who resisted and illuminated the strange fruit hanging from so many southern poplar trees, we must understand our history. Barack Obama knows he is standing on the shoulders of giants. Now he is the giant and must be the guardian of that history so others may stand upon his.