I had been thinking about it for several days, should I keep her home? Should I send her to school but bring her home for lunch? I'd really wanted this day to be a special one, one she would remember later in life. Well, Kajal was sick... which actually rarely happens. Don't get me wrong, she's been through a huge amount since she came home from India. She was covered with bruises, cuts and scrapes from her neck to her toes when I brought her home. She had several physical ailments that she was treated with but with all that, she never complained. She's had a runny nose almost every day since she's been with me and a cold in her chest that sometimes seems never to go away. This was one morning she admitted she was feeling ill... extremely rare so I jumped on it... she didn't have a temperature but I promised to tuck her into bed and keep her cozy, safe and snug all day. And so it was that she stayed home with me on the day America's first black President was sworn into office. Although she is Indian and not African American, she is a child of color and she has experienced racism not only in India for the darkness of her skin but her in America since she has come home to me. I'll never forget the early days when she first came home from school and tried to 'wash' her color away or she described herself as 'black' and 'bad'. Still today I sometimes see looks of hatred from people, directed at us as we walk down the street. Thank God, it's rare but when it happens, it is chilling beyond belief. President Obama is hope to me, hope for many reasons. Kajal senses my excitement, since the day we saw him elected while vacationing in Hawaii to this day, Kajal new that something major was happening. We watched the swearing in and Kajal held my hand while I cried happy tears. We talked about what this moment meant to the world and that what matters is not what we look like on the outside, but who we are on the inside.


Introducing President Obama