THE YEAR 2000 IS FINALLY HERE. Welcome to the 21st Century.

Thinking back nearly a decade ago, on the cusp of a new millennium, the world seemed like we were on the brink of something exciting and new. The year 2000 would mean the future had arrived - everything we knew would be different, the world a better place.

The futuristic sound of the year 2000 was upon us on that day of December 31, 1999. The only slight worry we had was the ominous Y2K bug, where our computers might fail and our bank accounts reset to zero. On that pre-9/11 day, we had some concern about the harm certain factions could impose upon the world as each time-zone welcomed in the new era. Fortunately, as we watched CNN at the top of each hour, no computers failed, and no bloodshed happened. Hour by hour, the world celebrated this milestone with fireworks and celebration. The new world had begun. A new hope awakened in each of us.

Once the fireworks ceased and this new era had settled in, the reality of this new millennium were worse beyond our wildest imaginations. By the end of the first decade of this hopeful time, we would live thru an uncertain election and hanging chads, September 11 would bring us a domestic attack deadlier than Pearl Harbor and break our hearts, and nearly our spirit; Hurricane Katrina would nearly destroy a major city and leave the dead floating in the streets for days; two wars in the middle east would bring a quagmire, and thousands of flag draped coffins home. An inept president and his administration would cease our longstanding admiration as a country where dreams were made and there was justice for all - instead the world would look upon us and frown. Then when it couldn’t get any worse, corrupt banks and businessmen would lead us to the brink of an economic downfall unseen since the Great Depression.

The new millennium wasn’t anywhere near what it was cracked up to be. Maybe we’d need that Y2K bug to just come back and erase everything.

Mere words cannot express the joy that danced in the streets and sent a chill of hope down our spines on an evening in late 2008 - you’d just have to be there. Much can be said as to why this election outcome has produced such excitement not seen since the end of World War II. If 9/11 was our Pearl Harbour, then the election of the 44th president was our day of victory. It was as if our long national nightmare was beginning to be over. For once in a long while, we did the right thing.

Had a crystal ball told me what terrible events would transpire in the first decade of the new millennium, I would have never believed it. Nor would I have believed that before the decade was over, we would elect a young and hopeful visionary, a black man named Barack Hussein Obama, as the President of the United States. Maybe this new millennium isn’t so bad after all. We’ve changed.

Welcome to the 21st Century. It’s finally here.