PASSIONATE RATIONS

I bet the Italian Fiesta Pizzeria in Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois, will be giving away free slices this inauguration day.

The business’s owner, however, likely will be in Washington D.C.

This is what happens when Barack Obama identifies your restaurant as his favorite. You become a slice of history. It’s probably a good way to weather the recession.

A perfect storm coalesced to lead to this moment.

Years of war, economic woes, and a presidency that drained this country of its optimism, producing a famine of spirit, a starvation of the soul.

But this is democracy’s finest gift.

Change.

For the people and by the people.

And change things we did, reclaiming our optimism by reaching back to our finest Constitutionally-embedded principles and, for the first time, electing an African-American to the country’s premiere post.

I do not recall another election or inauguration day which generated so much hope, so much interest. This, truly, is what it should be about, no matter your party affiliation.

Whether Mr. Obama ultimately makes a good or bad president, only history will tell. But on this day, at least, things are very, very good. For the first time in a very long time, I am proud of my country. Maybe, after all, we really do stand for liberty and justice for all.

A deep hunger, sated.

Were I in Chicago today, I’d probably choose to spend my lunch hour at a certain pizzeria, where, I imagine, the spirits will be running as high as my own. At approximately 11:56 a.m., history will be made.

And we, like a certain Chicagoan pizzeria, will never be the same.