We're getting better

During President Obama's first inauguration in 2008, there was a pervasive sense that we were watching history being made.

There, in front of two million of his fellow Americans, our country's first black president took the oath of office, in a ceremony many believed they would never live to see.

It was truly a historic moment –  a time for us, as a nation, to pause and reflect the centuries-long struggle for equality and civil rights that culminated in the event.

What happened was important – and we all knew it.

Obama's second inauguration lacked the tenor of historical importance echoed in his first – the crowds were smaller, the celebrations more constrained.

Even the fact that it coincided with Martin Luther King Day, in honor of our country's most storied civil rights leader, couldn't rekindle that feeling of history.

Obviously, the second inauguration would be less memorable than the first –  after all, this is the president we've gotten used to over the last four years.

That's true for every president who's been reelected – it's just not as exciting the second time around.

But that's where we can see the legacy of Dr. King and the generations of civil rights activists before and after him most clearly.

The fact that having a black president now seems so ordinary indicates how far we, as Americans, have progressed.

Our country still faces huge challenges – bigotry, injustice and oppression remain everyday realities for many in America.

But Obama's second inauguration shows that, as every generation passes, we're getting better.