I hope my thoughts about race in America are now obsolete.

Seeing two million people on Pensylvania Avenue – so many of them black, so many of their faces shining with hope – did make me wonder though, if you have been fortunate.

Whatever the reason, I am happy for you and, with this new President, your country too.

It sounds like you have had some great adventures in America.

Oddly enough, for me the idea of race is really being overplayed by the domestic and foreign media. There is a generation of Americans (of which I am one) whom never knew segregation. I admit, I was a half/latino and white boy from Iowa- but even issues about Latinos being second class were beginning to fade.

While I respect Mr King for his place in our nation’s history- I do not hold him above our Founding Fathers, or our great statesmen and women such as Jefferson, Grant, FDR, JFK, Carter, and our Justices Bader-Ginsbers and Day-O’Connor.

What is important to me is that after what seemed like eight years of erosion to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights- in one moment on Tuesday the first three lines began to shine again, and with them the hopes and dreams that we will leave up to what we could have been in the past decade- and making a promise to learn and move forward for out next eight years.

I think, we too, maybe dismiss more of his achievements than we should but he abused our trust when he signed up with your President and left us feeling just that same cynicism that you describe.

Obama could well turn out to be another Blair – a smiling, articulate performer defeated by the pressures around him.

What else can we do but hope? Despair?

I hope and really do feel that this man will make a difference.

I shed a few tears, despite my deeply entrenched general cynicism, watching the inauguration on TV with about 100 of my co-workers. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one of us aware of the intense silliness of applauding a television set–even a big-screened one, which is sacred in this country–but few of us held back.

I remember riding the bus to work on the morning after Bill Clinton was elected the first time. Most of the other regulars on the bus were poor urban dwellers. I remember how they glowed, really, how delighted and full of hope they were.

It didn’t last. Now I do think that Clinton left the country better than he found it, but it soon became clear, to me anyway, that he was disinclined to stand up for the things he said he believed in before he was elected, and I think those people on the bus were disappointed.

I want to believe that this time will be different. I heard Obama speak at a conference a few years ago and I remember thinking, he’s pushing all the right liberal buttons, but what does he really believe, and is he willing to act on those beliefs? But maybe I’m an idealistic cynic and one can’t actually govern that way.

I do know this: we Americans have just gotten out of an eight-year abusive relationship. We expect to be assaulted every time we turn around by someone who claims it’s for our own good. This new relationship will certainly be a lot healthier, and that’s why we applaud. But we also realize that it’s very hard to trust right after all that abuse, and I’m afraid that’s where the tears may be coming from.

Still, what is that old cliche about nothing ventured..?

Shame the American presidential coverage hasn’t really hit home with me, although I have to say I am slightly envious that the Amercians feels so excited by Obama.

I can hardly see such excitement when a new PM gets elected in this country. No matter who we welect it is always very much the same, no one trying to make a real difference.

I wonder if their will be a sense of disappointment if/when the president helps the US but fails to save the world. I hope the hype doesn’t become a burden.