The purposes of Barack Obama's acceptance speech tonight were multiple, but the overriding message was to inspire voters.  It was to inspire voters to believe in America again, to believe in themselves again, to believe that our lives, our communities, our country, even our world can and will improve...and yes, to believe that this can and will happen if we elect him President.

And he succeeded.  I say this from a personal point of view.  I am one of those who had become cynical about Washington, about politics, about our country, about the likelihood of change, about my own future.   But listening to Obama, I felt that "stirring" of which he spoke.  I felt that my hopes and dreams did not have to be -- in the words of the great poet Langston Hughes -- "deferred."  I felt that this country and its people could and would once again be respected by our allies around the world.  And even better, I felt that I could help contribute to all that as an American.

There is so much that could be written about Obama's speech tonight -- that he gave details regarding his plans for improving the economy,  his plans for better education, his plans for affordable alternative energy, his plans for affordable health care for all Americans, and even his plans for focusing our foreign policy on the true threats of our time.

The final analysis, though, will be that he inspired the American people to feel that each and everyone of us counts.  Each and every one of us CAN make a difference, and that he is the one to help lead us into the bright 21st century about which we have dreamed but have not, so far, seen.

Whatever you want to call what stirred inside me at hearing this man speak, it felt good.  It felt right.  In a word, it "inspired" me.