It appears as a beginning.

A new president. A president of color, which the American people have never elected to the highest office in the land.

Although we celebrate this auspicious day with pride and patriotism, we also see many of the same challenges that faced Franklin D. Roosevelt also face this president — banking crisis, high unemployment, unrest overseas, a nation’s search for some glimmer of hope.

Our thoughts and our prayers first are with our nation, its people, its history, its present and its future. God has blessed us and will continue to do so. We should accept those blessings no matter the package they come in.

Secondly, we ask God to lay hands on this man, Obama, and those he chose to help steer the course of this nation through this dark economic time and into the light of new wealth.

This is a beginning, but as so many understand who have gone on before us, the present always intertwines with the past.