I have long defined my generation as those old enough to recall exactly where they were and how they felt the day President Kennedy was assassinated, yet young enough to be swept up in Beatles' mania when they first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show a few months later. Consider; that someone born five years later than me would have had a coloring book in their hands in that hour. Five years earlier, like my two older brothers, and you had weaned yourself on Beatniks, Summertime Blues and Jailhouse Rock. A very narrow band of time defined my precise generation. We came of age during the coffee-house/folk music idealism of the early sixties. I had early Dylan records in my LP collection, Peter, Paul & Mary. When Kennedy said in his 1961 inaugural speech, 'the torch has been passed to a new generation' and 'ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country' the hearts and minds of my generation were swept away by that call to national service. We were going to change the world. We felt quite certain of it. Peace and love were our guiding lights. Nothing could let us down.

The rest is history, as they say.

What seems utterly remarkable to me in this momentous hour is not only the way in which a whole new generation has been swept up by Barack Obama and his grace, but how the long dormant idealism of my own generation has been reawakened from its long slumber. I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon giving my time and energy to a food bank for the homeless, and minute after minute, another car would pull up, laden down by another load of canned food, dry goods and old clothes. The age of these people ranged from twenty-something all the way up to their seventies. Some had taken the time in the course of a busy day to drive ten, fifteen miles in order to say, hey, I am a part of this movement. Across the generations, people had heard Obama's call to service and had gathered themselves up to the task. It speaks to how undying that spark of goodness is in our hearts. Suppressed, trampled upon and seemingly extinguished over the last eight years, a feeling of hope and expectation has been reignited, like someone had placed a spark in the dry brush around my Southern California home.

Well, enough from me. It is time to let the pageantry of history takes its course. Like Vin Scully announcing a good ball game, silence says more than anything when someone has hit a winning home run. I can only wish Barack Obama the very best in this hour. If we all roll up our sleeves and chip in a bit of our time to help out going forward, it will be a much different, and a far better world four years hence.

Well, one more thing. Hallelujah. Our long national nightmare is finally over...

Members of Congress, distinguished guests, fellow Americans, and let us not forget at this hour, our fellow citizens of this Earth...we stand here today, not only at a crossroads for our nation, but at a crossroads along the journey of mankind. For far too long, war has been upon the land. Economic hardship confronts us everywhere and rancor of the most destructive sort has risen up between people of differing faiths. The very future of our planet appears to be in peril. Whatever frail dreams of peace we yet retain now hang precariously in the balance. Only the foolish or the hardest of heart can look upon the world today and think we have much time remaining to dally or to spare.

Yet I believe as I stand before you today, that what confronts us is a singular opportunity, a turning point in the history of mankind, where the specter of unspeakable self-destruction now gathers our collective strengths towards common good. It is that or we may well perish from the face of the earth. Franklin Delano Roosevelt once told this nation, in another hour of seemingly insurmountable crisis, 'There is nothing to fear but fear itself'. We now restate and fulfill that declaration of courage, not only for the sake of this nation, but for the hearts of people everywhere, who listen with faint hope to this clarion call. There is no folly which cannot be undone, no wrong which cannot be made right, no joyful destiny beyond the reach of our most cherished dreams. Whatever challenges that stand before us today, we have the strength and determination to overcome them, if only we decide to face them hand in hand. So again I assert here today. The time is long past for us to confront these challenges in isolation. They can no longer be overcome by one nation alone. It is time for the entire world to work together and in concert as one.

From the first mariners who sailed the Seven Seas, to the swiftness of telegraphs and telephones, to the great distances erased by railways and airplanes, to the incredible speed of today's satellites and Internet connections, a once vast world of distant lands has been increasingly rendered into common neighborhoods. No longer are there any dark corners on this earth in which vile deeds and acts of aggression can be hidden from the light of day. What each of us does today can be made known instantly, to everyone everywhere. When rape and pillaging takes place in Darfur, and children are left to starve beneath the relentless sun, the hearts of all good people must suffer along with them. When tanks overrun helpless villagers in Georgia, and those images are flashed instantly across every television and computer screen in the world, humanity must rise up in collective outrage and indignation. When any sovereign nation invades another, even with the most well-intentioned purpose in mind, people from Berlin to Moscow to Islamabad will naturally rise up in protest over what has been done. No nation can hope to take comfort in its greatest glory, without also taking stock of its greatest folly.

Therefore we say in this hour, and upon this stage, and at this turning point in the history of mankind, and not out of weakness, but with the true courage stemming from humility before God and all people, my fellow citizens of this Earth, we ask for your forgiveness and understanding. We Americans are far from a perfect people. We have made our share of mistakes, and failing to acknowledge them has only undermined the destiny we were given to play in this world. The true legacy of enduring democracy is a free, enquiring and critical spirit, so let us welcome constructive criticism, from anywhere and anyone across the globe. Let us strive to make friends of our enemies, and not new enemies of our old and cherished friends. If all of us can set aside the pretense of righteousness, then differing opinions need never be wrong. And joined together in this manner, we might achieve our common goal, that of peace on earth, without which we cannot hope to confront and overcome the other and innumerable challenges now facing us.

For those who abhor peace and still resist this inexorable vision, let us be clear, you are the few and not the many. You are the past and not mankind's destiny and will find yourselves increasingly ostracized as the world comes together as one. There are those, too, who will resist this very candor of admitting our nation's flaws, but arrogance cannot be our guide as we travel forward. For only through shared humility can we hope to achieve our manifest goal. We do not expect perfection of other nations, anymore than you can expect perfection from us, but let America reclaim its rightful place as a beacon of liberty and hope to the rest of the world. Of the people, for the people and by the people was not uttered as a quaint abstraction, to be discussed by men wearing powdered wigs and in comfortable parlors. It was a cry arising from millenniums of tyranny and oppression on this earth, a declaration meant to stamp out that very tyranny, a declaration we are only now beginning to fulfill in its fullest measure in this hour.

The world may not long remember what we have said here, but it will never forget the course we as human beings take from this day in time going forward. For either we commit ourselves to living in peace, or accept war to be the dominion of this world. Either we unite as one people to heal the wounds upon the earth, or watch as that very earth grows no longer able to sustain us. From the Inuits eking out their ancient existence along the Arctic Sea, to the street merchant in Baghdad, to the farmer growing corn in Iowa, peace will mean nothing if we no longer have the good earth upon which to depend. We may stand at the brink of disaster, but let us vow to do everything we can. A whole new way of envisioning our lives may be necessary, but if our dreams of a more perfect union, and a more perfect world are to be translated from words into deeds, we must roll up our sleeves and proceed from here with collective courage, a sense of brotherhood and in enduring good cheer. In the weeks and months to come, let us rededicate ourselves to fulfilling this pledge. In place of anger and pettiness, let us make a little gesture of kindness each day, and especially to those we don't yet know or understand. In place of indifference, let us make some effort to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Yes we can. Those words have brought us forward to this day. Yes we will. Those words now travel forward with us towards our uncertain future. Tomorrow, let us return to this place and be able to say, through love and collective effort, and in peaceful satisfaction, yes we did, yes we did. Together, yes we can.

Thank you and may God bless everyone, everywhere, on the face of the Earth.