World News America  Page last updated at 11:22 GMT, Thursday, 22
January 2009  Washington diary: Healing divisions  By Matt Frei
BBC News, Washington  Crowds gather on the National Mall in
Washington DC The inauguration day imposed an unusual degree of
equality on Washington  America prides itself on being a melting
pot.  But in most part, this country is an archipelago of tribes
living apart from each other on opposite sides of unmarked
barriers.  Our street in Washington is a good example. We live
in a predominantly white neighbourhood.  At the last "block-
party" there was only one African-American family. He's a
partner in a law firm. She's a college professor.  All day the
name Obama was whispered, shouted, spoken and sung like some
Esperanto mantra, invoked to heal divisions and engender good
feelings  Although the neighbourhood is white and well-to-do,
the public primary school - and in this country "public" means
just that - opposite our house is predominantly black.  Hardly
any of the children at Phoe