I went to the doctor yesterday (I'm lucky my health insurance is fully covered by the small nonprofit I lead, where we see the health of our employees as critical to organizational success). As I was leaving the doctor's office, an elderly woman frantically rushed up the stairs of the building, asking me if I could help her husband. When I ran out with her, I saw that he'd tripped and fallen getting out of the car outside, lying down with blood oozing out of his head on the pavement. In that moment, I didn't succumb to the fear that could paralyze - I took action, rallied others in the building to call 911 while I kept the man talking so he'd stay awake and conscious until the paramedics arrived. In that moment, the fragility of human life became abundantly clear to me, as did the importance of looking out for one another, for caring for our weakest ones despite fear, uncertainty and doubt. Perhaps as Asian Americans we intrinsically understand how important it is to hold the the essence of compassion, as the cultures many our families come from are firmly rooted in traditions of communal thinking, being, seeing - demonstrating the kind of love Elizabeth Alexander referred to on Inauguration Day which heals, mends and binds us to one another. Well, nearly nine months later, the time for us as Americans to collectively, as a nation, have each other's backs is here, we are truly no stronger than the weakest amongst us. It's time for us to take action, build upon that momentum, recapture the energy created with the momentous election of our 44th president. I'm ready to see the change I believed in manifest for real.

Tonight's speech reignited an excitement in me that started when I heard Obama speak live for the first time in Oakland just weeks after he announced his candidacy. What an opportunity for Obama to demonstrate his tremendous oratorical ability to inspire, show off his cool headed, calm and rational way to speak intelligibly, intuitively and perceptively. He's using a rare joint session of Congress to address actual domestic policy that will help heal and cure the people of our own country instead of false, trumped up talking points to lead us into war and kill people elsewhere. The expectations were high and it's been a rocky week with my own feelings about Obama, so I went in feeling skeptical. Well, he knocked it out of the park. Less than a week ago, I was hopping mad the White House left Van Jones out to dry, seriously questioning how progressive Obama is really going to be. The enormity of the task at hand became clear once again. Our country is so far from the vision of progress, cooperation, peace and equity that I know is possible - but at times it's overwhelming, disheartening and outright frightening - it's that same paralyzing fear that cripple in moments of crises. However, my patience, resilience and willingness to stay in the fight and act despite all of that was buoyed by our President this evening. I'm still in it. And yes, we can win this one. Maybe not exactly the way we want it, or how we expect, or without more mud being slung around. But ultimately it is our health, our health that keeps our blood flowing, breathing, loving, talking, creating, doing, being. Without our health, we have nothing. We all hold common that simple fragility of life - that at any moment anything can happen to jarringly transform our reality (like simply tripping when you're getting out of the car), so we must be able rely on the support of our neighbors, our community, our country. I mean, after all, it's a new day, isn't it?