We all have just watched the second inauguration of our first African-American president, a man half-white and half-black who has chosen, of his own accord, to identify with his blackness.

It was a singular occasion, one that would scarcely have been imaginable as little as 20 years ago.

My wife and I were on a ship pulling into Sydney, Australia, when the election took place. We were proud of America at that moment, both for the signal it sent to the world, and for how far it shows that our nation has come in our history.

Robert M. Coon Jr.

Hilton Head Island