Someone (perhaps millions of someones) beat me to the comparison a while back, but that's because it's a central concept for us Star Wars fans.

Today marks a new day for America and the world, "a day long remembered" as we like to say. Today, no matter which side of the aisle you may fall, or even if you find yourself hovering above it hurling admonishments to all politicians, today Real Change happens. Something that has never happened before, and future history has yet to reveal if it will ever happen again.

In the perspective of decades, I think few saw this coming, and few know how it happens - that being Real Change. Change born of a time when we many saw dark horizons and few deviations to our course. Change inserting itself into the hearts of a long-embattled citizenry. Change spreading like a virus through a stagnated thought pool. Change in leadership, change in ideas, and change as a surprising turn of destiny.

Our beloved films have a way with bringing us to the darkest moments of those stories, moments in which, when we first saw them, we were absolutely certain there was no way out, no one would survive. And then the George would surprise us, using the tragedy against its own nature, turning it into Hope. Episode's I to III are all about that descent. And from A New Hope to Return of the Jedi, we see the relentless ascent of right over wrong, and the inevitability of the meek inheriting all.

But even so, the final act had its own deep fissures in the crust of Hope. All was darkness, the Empire was almighty despite the best efforts to tear it down. We all remember that moment - we were perhaps surprised when we first took it in - when it seemed like Luke was destined to fall to grim darkness, and everything we had emotionally invested in was absolutely locked onto a path of destruction.

...There is no escape, my young apprentice, " the Emperor said.

The Alliance will die...as will your friends."

Words, like granite, falling from the pulpit of absolute power. And then Luke did something not done before. He chose the path not yet taken, the one between destructive revenge and bitter retreat, the one that called upon the hero's heart to Return.

Today, we live just such a moment. We don't know yet which path he will choose. We don't know yet if he is made from the legacy of failure, or born anew with the fire of future success. But we do know this - today marks Real Change.

I am a Republican, from Texas. I voted for McCain. But I am proud today to see our new President sworn in as a source of Potential, an agent of Change. He has already changed the status quo just by arriving at this day. And now, I am hopeful. Because despair is a sin, and hope is eternal.

Here's to our New Hope. Here's to Barack Obama, 44th President of The United States of America.

DM out