Barack Obama

It is the theme of his presidency and it will be the way he will be remembered. He is bold enough and confident enough to invite the people of this nation to change the course of their own government.

Some groups have really answered the call. LGBTs have been fighting tooth and nail for their civil rights and have made substantial gains. And they won't stop now. We will fight with them, too, because it is right and just, and because we won't tolerate human beings getting labeled "less than."

After all this time, the very things Martin fought and died for and John Lewis was jailed for are being taken away. African Americans and Latinos and the elderly and college students are fighting now to regain that ground. We will fight with them because the right to vote is essential. Without it there is no democracy.

And women are standing up and marching on state capitols by the thousands in places where their most fundamental rights are being appropriated by bigoted old men and ignorant religious zealots - as if they had the sense God gave a jaybird. They don't even know how the female body works, much less what is best for an individual woman. They also seem to have forgotten their very own ideology of less government intervention. So women gather to make their voices heard and their opinions known. This is a fight that crosses all barriers. Even those religious ones. Because even deeply religious women use birth control and are the victims of rape and have to make choices about continuing pregnancies.

Yes, the Tea Party is protesting, too. Not because they heard his call but because he's black. We've got to change that.