A Dream Fulfilled

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:22:06 +0000 – By Lanny DavisAttorney/Former White House Special Counsel

So many jumbled thoughts and emotions as I sat just 100 feet from the podium, at eye level, doing FOX network radio and watching Barack Obama being sworn in as our 44th president.

But one thought overall, overwhelming thought -- and I suspect shared, in emotions if not exact word, by the more than one million people who stretched from the Capitol to the Washington monument to the Lincoln Memorial:

"Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last."

Forty six years and and just about five months ago, I stood -- 17 years old, a recent high school graduate - about the same distance from Dr. Martin Luther King when he closed his inspiring "I Have a Dream" speech at the end of the "March on Washington."

[caption id="attachment_2872" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Martin Luther King (AP)"][/caption]

And he promised that "some day children will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

And, I realized, as Barack Obama closed his oath of office with, "so help me God," that Dr. King's dream had really happened.

And I, with the grace of that same God, witnessed the two events -- within the same 100 feet -- to share with my children and grandchildren "at last."