He told us this in the first minutes of his presidency:

All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

In a few minutes I will get up, shower, get dressed and go out and vote for Senator Barack Obama to be President of the United States. His election today is the culmination of events which began with the murder of the President who inspired me and others of my age. In the aftermath of that wrenching event, his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, whose great mistake obscures his most spectacular achievements, interpreting his duty to complete the work of the president under whom he served, convinced the Congress to finally enact real civil rights legislation and, not content with that, the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

As he forecast, those laws cost his party the South, whose race tinged votes made the elections of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and Woodrow Wilson possible and even that of John F. Kennedy. But, in time, and this is that time, it changed this country to the point that it could elect a man whose father was from Africa, to be president of the United States.

Presidents Kennedy and Johnson would be proud and we should remember them fondly today (as always.) Those long lines of eager voters even where the presidential vote may be meaningless, is a tribute to the country we have become.

and, yes, it began that day, but it is the struggle that has the most meaning:

I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

I live closer to Hyde Park than Hyannis or Johnson City and will spend part of the day in homage to President Roosevelt, hoping he stops spinning in his grave over the replay of the early 1930s which could only nauseate him, were he still alive.

It is so great to be so proud to be an American today, and I am.