In fall 1989, I stood amid a mass of people in Parliament Square in Budapest, Hungary, listening as the first democratically elected president of Hungary addressed his constituents. Young people marked the historic occasion with their presence. Elders, those who remembered the violence of 1956, stood silently at attention, weeping, washing away decades of communist oppression.

I tell you this now because I wept through President-elect Barack Obama's acceptance speech, feeling oddly at one with those Hungarians who had suffered so much, who had watched their country dissipate into deception, thievery and macho one-upmanship.

My country, too, had fallen under the governance of people who did not care about it, who appeared to despise its ordinary people, who mined its wealth for themselves and gave nothing back. The hope for a brighter American future that shone in John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had been cut short by assassins. In the decades that followed, America was torn apart by Nixon, was glued fragilely back together by Ford and tolerated Carter. Then the real destruction began.

In Reagan's eight years of free-market ideology, followed by four years of Bush I, in the name of "reinventing" government, we saw regulations eviscerated in vital areas such as environmental protection, civil rights, equal employment opportunity, banking, consumer and worker safety, job training and health care. We saw mental hospitals close, with a concomitant rise in homelessness among the seriously mentally ill. We heard that tax cuts were good for the rich, and that economic benefits would "trickle down" to the rest of us.

Clinton's eight years were a sigh of relief from the nation. The economy boomed; welfare reforms did not cut some programs - like Headstart - that really worked; our treasury showed a surplus; millions of jobs were created.

Then came Bush II and a Republican Congress and Supreme Court. It doesn't even seem worth recounting the tragedies that ensued: the widening gap between rich and the rest of us, the bizarre war on Iraq, the apparent indifference to finding the perpetrators of 9/11, the squandering of America's moral leadership among nations and now the desolate economy.

So here's Obama accepting the presidency, parents from Kansas and Kenya, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, educated at Occidental, Columbia and Harvard Law, passing up prestigious law firms to work with poor communities in Chicago, fighting for real people, real rights in Illinois and the U.S. Senate, living the American dream to take a chance at being president.

His being part African-American is just icing on the cake. Obama represents the resurrection of hope for a brighter American future. The call to service, the message that we can be one nation, one people, united in our love of country and our care for one another, echoes still. This is the vision of America that I have always held dear, an America where anyone can succeed and everyone deserves the chance - the real America.

My America doesn't back down to bullies, but also doesn't pick fights. My America generates lots of clean, home-grown energy. My America does not give tax breaks to corporations that move their operations and their taxable profits abroad. My America values education, innovation, fairness and families of all types. My America values healthy markets and effective government, safe products and clean air. My America is not greedy.

The hopes that voters place in Obama do not rest on him alone, but on our collective shoulders. We are inspired again and ready to go to work. Big visions take a long time and are never enacted precisely as envisioned; we know there will be disappointments along the way. Despite all this, we pledge to use our skills and energies to build America once again.

Many of my young friends glimpse this vision. Their eyes shine with hope for a future that can include them. They may not believe in heroes, but they want to believe in themselves. Their voices emphatically assert that self-care is good, but selfishness is destructive to society. Their hearts are open to compassion. They are ready to get to work to make the vision happen.

It is heartening to see and listen to these young people, to watch them in action. It makes me believe that the dreams of JFK and MLK are not dead. May those dreams come to fruition for Elizabeth, Sam, Chelsea, Tara, Dameko, Kemba, Frank, Kendra, Donnie and the millions of young people who hold in their hands the unfolding of this once-and-future great nation.