Ladies and Gentlemen: "President Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States and First Lady Michelle Obama" has a nice ring to it and it sounds so good.

I have attended and watched several inaugurations during my lifetime, but I never witnessed an inaugural event as the Obama Inauguration.

It was truly a celebration and it will go down in history as one of the greatest events of the 21st Century. The Obama inauguration was an international event. It was a multicultural event. It was an intergenerational event. It was a multiracial event. It was an ecumenical event. It was an interfaith event. It was a human event. It was a celebratory event. The Obama inauguration was America at its best.

President Barack Obama's election affirms the founding Fathers' creed, "… that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…" President Barack Obama, who is a black American, has taken leadership of the greatest nation on earth.

The election and swearing-in of President Barack Obama is a historic event for this country; and for countries around the world. This is certainly a new day and we, as Americans, have taken a bold step in electing an American who is black to lead our great nation.

I need to say again that President Barack Obama is not "the black President," rather he is the President who happens to be black. He is President of all of America and he is the President of all Americans.

President Barack Obama is every American's President and it is going to take commitment from every segment of this great nation of ours to return this country to some sense of economic normalcy and to regain the international respect for America as a leader in human rights

Like the president's before him, President Obama will be criticised, sometimes negatively caricatured, talked about and mistreated; and black people must understand that criticism of his presidency will not occur because he is black; he will be criticised because he is the President; all presidents have been criticised. Any criticism of President Barack Obama will not be a criticism of black people; and those who criticise him are not racists. Criticism goes with the job.

We can be sure that President Obama will be working in the best interests of all Americans - blacks, white, red, browns, and yellow Americans; and that's as it should be.

The closing paragraph of the Reverend Joseph Lowery's inaugural benediction spoke volumes, "… we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right…" was a Powerful word and a challenge for all Americans.

We all, collectively and individually; black, white, red, yellow and brown need to work for the equal rights of all Americans – Muslims, Hindus, everybody; even for those with whom we might not agree.

I will say it again that we, as black people, need to recommit ourselves to excellence because there is too much crime in the black community; too much black on black crime; too much disrespect for education; too many thugs and drugs in the black community; too many young black kids taking soft subjects in school; and too many black men and women in prison. We must be adamant in saying that education is the way to achieve upward mobility and economic stability.

I hope that our young people will return to the notion of setting high academic goals and dispelling the notion that the only way they can get ahead is to excel in athletics and in entertainment. This is a new day and "the sky is the limit".

If we, Americans, will all work together, the words in the benediction of the Reverend Joseph Lowery will become a reality; blacks will not be asked to "step back," brown folks can stick around, yellow folks will be mellow, red folks will be able to get ahead; and white folks will embrace what is right."

President Barack Obama is the President of all Americans, the President of all 50 States and the President of all U.S. territories. He is the leader of the free world; the most powerful leader in the world and I am glad about it.

Ladies and Gentlemen: "President Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States and First Lady Michelle Obama" sounds so good to me.

The Christian Recorder is the official newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church