In my last 40 years I have grown cynical about leadership. I grew up in the 60s and watched so many of my heroes die. I had just become a teen when John Kennedy was assassinated. I was writing a history exam in the school gym when the PA system came on and we were told to stop what we were doing and go home. I then watched the next day on live TV as Lee Harvey Oswald was gunned down surrounded by police. Five years later I remember the moment when the announcement came that Martin Luther King had been murdered. I was driving on the expressway and almost crashed the car. Not two months later, the announcement of Robert Kennedy's shooting came on the radio as I was drifting off to sleep. The next day while at work I heard that he had died. These men were icons of change. They framed my coming of age.

Now having just turned 60 I find myself remembering the 60s because a young man is about to become President. He is bright, an icon of hope, a mind that matters in a world that has been victimized by human greed and stupidity. His promise means so much. I feel purposeful about politics. I want to be engaged again. I want to make a contribution to help society, to work with those less fortunate than myself and my family.

That's what Obama's presidency means to me.