Column: Giving the inauguration its due

For a couple of weeks, friends and other people whom I unfortunately know have joked around with me, asking how much I was looking forward to the inauguration. I am not going to lie - I have kind of been in a funk. All of the hype about it has gotten to me, and the multiple Facebook invites to speech-watching events and prayer services have not helped either. Even the red, white and blue coffee sleeves at Starbucks have contributed to my depression.

Politically, conservatives andˇIˇalike may be frustrated by the results of the election and what we have to look forward to for the next four years. It would be inexcusable, though, to let petty politics get in the way of one of our country's greatest achievements. Tuesday became a historic day and perhaps the most important one Americans will see during our lifetimes. We saw our country's first black president take office.

Think about how far our country has come in the last 100 years. The path toward ridding our country of the regrettable prejudice and bigotry that has haunted it for so long has caused years of pain and frustration to go unnoticed. While we still have a long way to go, the inauguration of President Obama is perhaps the biggest step our country has taken.

Throughout his trip to Washington, D.C., Obama has taken lines from both Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. symbolizing the importance and the value of his inauguration. While the U.S. would never be where it is today without the guidance of these spectacular men, Obama has done something even greater. He did not achieve the presidency alone but with the help and support of Americans. This is not just Obama's achievement and not just the achievement of one race - this is an achievement for the American people.

This all may sound too annoyingly idealistic, but there is really no other way to describe what happened in Washington on Tuesday. People took their minds off of the economy, the war and even their worries about the future. Anti-abortion activists will still have the Freedom of Choice Act to worry about, and conservative talk show hosts can complain about the estimated $150 million price tag on Obama's inauguration gala for the rest of the week. But Jan. 20 was a sacred day, and we should all work to keep it that way.

On Tuesday, those who were caught up in the hope and change the Obama presidency will bring about and those who are unsure about the next four years joined together in wonder and amazement of what this country has just achieved. We have many changes to look forward to (or to dread), and there are still many problems yet to be revealed. But for a few more days, let's try to forget about those and just soak in Tuesday's historic importance.