"Rosa sat so that Martin could walk. Martin walked so that Barak could run. Barak runs so that our children can fly." This was a message widely disseminated through cell-phones and e-mails among youthful voters on the election day. Evidently, it referred to Rosa Parks’ stubborn refusal to remove herself from the white-only seats in a bus; Martin Luther King’s historic march to Washington D.C.; and now Obama’s run for presidency. No message better captures the significance of Obama’s achievement than this eloquent pun. As to the rest of the world, Obama comes across not only as the first black occupant of the White House. He also represents a renewed promise that America is a moral idea and "a city on a hill," indeed, in which "all men are created equal." Throughout the turbulent history of modern Korea, too, America was more than a mere geographical designation – it was a moral destination. That is why the last emperor desperately pleaded for American intervention when Korea was on the verge of Japanese annexation. The provisional government exiled in China during the colonial era often turned to America as the beacon of freedom that would one day deliver us from slavery. The founding president of postcolonial Korea also believed that American-style democracy is the only viable political option that could secure Korea’s survival. Albeit not without ups and downs, America was indeed a moral idea that Korean people used to look up to in times of tumults. With the Kwangju Massacre of 1980, however, that trust took a dramatic turn of fate. Korean public learned that Reagan administration endorsed the military regime that was responsible for the calamity. We felt rudely awakened, and that bitter sense of betrayal has hit the all-time low during Bush’s eight-year reign. Now we the Korean people see in Obama a possibility of redemption. A promise that America can be once again what it used to be. Along with redemption will come challenges. Especially to those self-claimed pro-American elements in the conservative establishment and the present neo-liberal government. The on-going North Korean nuclear crisis and disagreements over KOR-US FTA will be only the first of many issues to come, which will put the Korean-US relationship to new test. No one knows what future holds for the two nations’ alliance. But one thing is clear. Change has come to America. Korea cannot be insulated from the change. And the majority of the Korean people, if not all of their leaders, look forward to it with overwhelming enthusiasm. "We ain’t who we want to be. We ain’t who we ought to be. We ain’t who we can be. But we ain’t who we used to be." With Obama’s election, Marin Luther King’s sermon once again rings true in our own time. This time, "We" include not just African Americans, nor merely American voters. The entire world citizens form columns in King’s "We" as we all together embark on a new march shoulder to shoulder with Obama’s America. Korea should be a part of this march. We cannot afford to be who we used to be. Professor Sung Ho Kim Department of Political Science and Int’l Studies Yonsei University