Well, homeownership is going to remain out of reach for a lot of people even in the best of times. That's why I think affordable rental housing is such an important issue.

I think it's certainly possible to rent and achieve financial stability, and I think one's inability to buy a home shouldn't be an obstacle to achieving that to some reasonable degree.

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you referring to the housing aspect? If so, I think people are very much aware of it, just that the responses have been a lot more piecemeal and less headline-grabbing.

The credit crunch has made it harder for developers to get financing for new affordable housing projects, and foreclosures have hit not only homeowners but also owners of rental housing, which often results in tenants having to move out. So there's two ways that low-income renters have been affected by the current crisis.

Now consider where all those foreclosed homeowners typically end up living: rental housing. Granted, they may not be competing directly with low-income renters for housing. But the overall increase in demand for rental housing, at a time when it's difficult to increase supply, makes things even less favorable for the latter with respect to cost and/or availability.

aesthetics aside, great concept. probably 99% of americans don't even realize the president gives a weekly address. maybe now that number fall into the low 90s.

And I do not mean to be racist, but...

I appreciate the pragmatism in this piece by Avishai. I understand the sentiment that, while it's great we finally got around to electing a minority to high office, there are much larger immediate issues at stake, and there were countless better reasons to vote Obama into the White House than anything to do with the color of his skin. I do appreciate that.

But, look. There will be plenty of time for such pragmatism.

Quite frankly, the "well it's about time" attitude, and the notion that if Cosby and Oprah and Tiger can win popularity contests, it only stands to reason that, ho hum, we're bound to elect a black president one of these days too, are a deep and profound insult to the moment at hand.

Fifty years from now, a hundred years from now, there will have been many mundane details already filled in. But what will stand out, what our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, will highlight in their history lessons and commit to memory, is what happened yesterday.

I'm white and privileged, born and raised in a comfortable middle-class suburban setting. But I do know a little about the historical weight of this moment in the story of America. I have not borne its often iniquitous burdens and legacies. But I do know enough of it to know that this moment in that story is nothing to be diminished, for any reason.

Witness the streaming tears of ecstatic disbelief, the joyous celebrations all across the country. The last eight years notwithstanding, this is not the stuff of presidential election results. This is something different. This is something momentous, in a much broader scheme of things than whatever the next presidential term or two will bear witness to.

Yes, of course it was bound to happen sooner or later. But it happened now. Right now. We should not make haste to lose sight of this moment and what it means.