Like many theoretically mature adults, I can't help but thrill to glorious rhetoric, but a darker, more knowledgeable soul within me hopes we're not moving deck chairs on the Titanic, and demands of me to follow the money.

That being said, it is very warming to have a contemporary black role model that's neither athlete, religioso, nor entertainer. A serious person cannot but help in many ways here.

So welcome aboard, Mr. Obama, and good luck to you. We're all going to need it.

And truth be told, the White House transforms everyone who inhabits it, and history makes particular and unpredictable demands in those crystallizing moments of time such as we now face, and only a fool dares predict. So good luck to you, Mr. Obama, you've bitten off a big chunk of destiny. Godspeed.