Two hundred thirty-two years after the Declaration of Independence with the phrase:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”

Enshrined into our imperfect US Constitution was an imperfect union that limited the right of those truths to white land-holding men, delegating blacks to 3/5 of a person to count only for taxes and representatives for those white land-holding men in order to deal with the dichotomy of slavery between the northern and southern states.

A brutal civil war and pain-staking Civil Rights Movement removed many of those imperfections, but feelings lingered for many affecting the cultures of race, politics, and communities. Lives were lost, cultural heritages destroyed, families split apart, and politics of fear used to strike terror in the unknown or differences within America.

Yet, the brilliant gems in the American ideals that has stood its time is and will always be that anyone, anywhere around the world could come to America, strike a living, become a citizen of the United States of America, and potentially see their own naturally born son or daughter become the President of the United States. That no matter your race, culture, creed, and so forth, you have the opportunity to become a part of the United States unlike nearly every other nation on the Earth.

The United States has stumbled through many periods of its short history, but continues to learn from its mistakes and come back to the core ideals of the American dream that has made it stand strong. We may not always do as we preach, but when we do, we shine greater than any star save Sol. When we hold to our ideals, it shines through, whether as the shining beacon on the hill or through the change that we bring to the world.

It is in our ever-changing US Constitution that the American people believe that change positively can affect our lives without destroying the essentials of who we are as Americans or as human beings. We are a country of odd beliefs, proposing grand ideas such as the League of Nations, then refusing to join it, only to finally bring it to fruition with the United Nations. A country that loves new words and new cultures, mix it around, and call it our own. We are a country that soon will be a majority of minorities.

And now we are a country that has elected the first black President in the Western world into the world’s most powerful and most influential nation. The United States of America’s 44th President, Barack Hussein Obama.

Two hundred and thirty-two years after our declaration of independence, the United States is now ruled (okay, technically not until 2009) by a face that is not of Anglo-Saxon origin. When he travels around the world, he now embodies the change, the uniqueness, and the ideals of America. He brings disonance to the propaganda that the US only talks about its ideals, but never acts on it. He proves that a son of a man from Africa can become the leader of the free world. He proves that having a unique name, even an Arabic name of a dictator we just overthrew, does not disqualify him to the American people in choosing him to lead our nation from the White House.

The transformation for the US and the world has only just begun for a better way. The change that we all can believe in has only just started. Yet, President Barack Obama has only finished the easy part–hope can only go so far. His expectations by many far and wide are very high and the challenges that the US and world face are numerous. Nonetheless, for this night the toast goes to President Barack Obama and his transformational win to the world, to the US, and to the American people.

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