For starters, Park Slope’s Senator Chuck Schumer was the emcee of the 2013 Inauguration. Then, the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir sang a glorious “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

And Beyonce: her virtuosic rendition of the exceedingly difficult to sing National Anthem was stunning. And Jay-Z, of course, he was in attendance.

Oh and Obama. Obama. Perhaps the greatest speech of his career. Progressive, pragmatic, visionary. Beautiful words, beautiful man. Yes, his hair is grayer, but he is wiser.

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.