President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office at noon today. We rejoice because we have finally found ourselves on the winning side of history, when in the past we could only console ourselves with being on the right side of history. We have shoved defeat down the throat of victory. When I say “we,” I do not mean a particular group but desire for you to read the “we” however you see fit, from Democrats to Africans-Americans to young people. The glory of this victory does not belong to one group alone, one party alone, one race alone, one age group alone or even one political party alone but to all of us who labored when it seemed like a pipe dream, to all of us who put bitterness of the primaries behind us to move forward.

I am glad to say with a healthy amount of pride that I supported the president-elect from the beginning. I supported him when at times campaigning for him felt more like an exercise in meeting new people and killing time on weekends than actually coming closer to attaining the democratic nomination for President-elect Obama.

As the president-elect takes the oath of office we will all reflect on our own personal journey over the past two years of this election — some more tortuous than others — to this moment and prepare to enshrine this moment in our memory to recall to future generations. We should all feel a sense of pride and excitement at what this means for our country, the world and all of us as we enter a new era where we may not always individually judge each other on the content of our character but collectively value character more than color.

Once the excitement of victory subsides we are left with a new president and a new role for ourselves. Those of us who felt as though we were on the outside looking in, will now find ourselves on the inside looking inward to presidential leadership. Our new role does not afford us the luxury of being mere spectators, instead we the people must actively work with the president-elect to remind and assist him in achieving his promises. This means following current events, more than punditry, and calling and emailing political leaders across the spectrum to let them know that our involvement may have started in ’08 but does not end at noon today.

In my guest column, aptly titled “Substance Breeds Hope,” published in The Sun on Sept. 6, 2007, I argued that the substance of the president-elect’s political record and ideas was breeding hope and inspiring the American people. I wrote this column at a time when the president-elect was being assailed as vapidly offering hope to instill hope as a method for moving the country forward and his followers as blind acolytes. Throughout his campaign for the presidency, the president-elect repudiated this notion and made his case to the American people and inspired them at the same time.

He so succeeded in doing this that I do not feel comfortable saying substance bred hope during the election and will continue to breed hope during his presidency. Now its time for us to dismiss the remains of this notion of us as blind acolytes, make our case to the president-elect, on whatever issues we hold close to our hearts, issues like full representation of Washington, D.C., marriage equality, a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and an end to torture. We must make our voices heard and our actions provocative but deliberate and hopefully inspire president-elect Obama at the same time.