ust five minutes ago on MSNBC, Spike Lee shared that sentiment, as he searched for words to express his feelings. For very different reasons, I suspect, I share his words. With the election to the highest office in the land, Barack Obama represents the past and the future, fear and hope, a new day, a new dawn and a new beginning.

More than 40 years ago, I stood on a small Catholic college campus, speaking about and watching a country in which Blacks struggled to gain a measure of respect. Where poll taxes were levied to prevent Blacks from voting. Where bathrooms were labeled Colored and White and where only the back seats were available for Blacks. Where education was for Whites and a hard life of labor for Blacks.

Today, a Black man stands as President of the United States. How far we have come since Lincoln and a war that divided our nation over an economy dependent in large parts of our nation on slavery. Again, we fight an economic war dependent on debt and a class society wherein the gap between rich and poor widens ever more. It is a scenario ripe for dissent and carnage in the streets. Yet, today we celebrate. We come together as one to honor a great moment in history: Blacks and Whites, Rich and Poor, Immigrant and Native Born, Brown and Red. And we ask, what does the future hold?

We have a moment, a fleeting Milli-second in time, to capture the best America has to offer. We can do it if we will. We can rebuild our infrastructure. We can discover new energy choices. We can stop fighting amongst ourselves and come together to solve the greatest challenges in our history as a people. To do so, we must drop the labels. We must stop being Democrat and Republican, Liberal and Conservative, Black and White, Brown and Red, Rich and Poor, and become Americans, united to make a difference and to create a land where our children will live a life better than ours.

To do so calls for a change of heart. It calls for the end of the great divide in Washington, D.C., on Wall Street and on Main Street. It calls for sacrifice from each of us. It calls for us to accept personal responsibility for our individual lives and for our nation's future. And it calls for the end of greed and politics as usual; to instead stand united for the greater good.

Will we Americans grasp this once in a lifetime opportunity to bring about a new world that is more about peace and love than war and hate? United we stand, divided we fall. Never in the last 140 years has that been more true.

More on the Subject: Proud to be an American, Nonpartisan Words of Encouragement, A Brand New Day (click on the podcast link)