This is the Stuff Obama Gets So Right

Blub:

The Dow Jones reached a significant milestone yesterday, and news outlets were abuzz with excitement. Olympia Snowe's vote for the Baucus bill was plenty fodder for the 24-hour news cycles. But, for Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists in the United States, an epochal event transpired at the White House afternoon that should not slip notice.

Lead me from Untruth to Truth.
Lead me from darkness to light.
Lead me from death to immortality.
(from the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad -- I.iii.28)
As the ethereal sounds of a Hindu priest's chanting of this Sanskrit prayer from ancient Hindu scripture filled the East Room, President Obama lit the ceremonial White House diya--and he used this Sanskrit word for lamp--with dozens of Asian, Indian and Hindu Americans in attendance. Never before had a sitting U.S. President personally celebrated the Diwali holiday, and with that one gesture, two million Hindu Americans felt a bit more like they belonged--one more reason to feel at home. Maybe that cliché that all of our diversity adds unique patches to the American quilt is not as tired as we thought.

What I love most about the Obama presidency so far is its genuine commitment to ethnic multiculturalism. And I love seeing a non-white First Family, and a multi-ethnic non-white First Family, at that. And I love pictures like this one, and these ones, and this one over here. I love the leadership of our country looking more and more like the country in which I actually live. And I love that President Obama knows that symbols matter, and that it's not a small thing for millions of people to feel a little bit more like this country is a home to them as much as it is to the most privileged among us.

[H/T to Shaker TinaH.]