“Somehow we have weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.” – Amanda Gorman
Yesterday, the 46th President, Joseph R. Biden, and Vice President, Kamala Harris, were sworn into office. Every four years, I watch the Inauguration – it’s the culmination of months of campaigning, debating, and dialogue. A ceremony that marks a democratic process that started in 1789. A symbol of the peaceful transfer of power that America is known for.
This year’s event was unique for many reasons. It was the first virtual inauguration due to the pandemic. Instead of the national mall being filled with onlookers, it was filled with nearly 200,000 flags of varying sizes waving in the cold DC air to represent the Americans who were urged to stay home instead of risking getting sick by attending in person. It came just two weeks after a mob attempted to overturn the election results by sieging the Capitol building, reminding us just how fragile our peace is. And it came at a time where we are more cognizant and confident than ever in the checks and balances set up to protect the will of the people.
Along with millions of others, I watched from the comfort of my own couch and was surprised to find myself getting emotional as soon as Senator Amy Klobuchar started her opening remarks. I think it was the final release my body had been waiting for even after the election results came in, the electoral college voted, and Congress ratified the results. I didn’t realize how much stress and tension I had been compartmentalizing in order to function in the day to day. I breathed deeply, sighed loudly, and let the tears flow.
I was deeply moved by the diversity represented in this – our country’s most sacred process. And felt honored to watch our democracy on display for the world to see.
The juxtaposition of the swearing in of our oldest President next to being wowed by the youngest Inaugural poet, Amanda Gorman.
It was in watching the first Hispanic and Latina Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, swear in our first-ever female leader who is also of Jamaican and South Asian decent. (For more thoughts on this historic event and why representation matters, check out my post from a few weeks ago.)
From LGBTQ icon and activist, Lady Gaga performing the National Anthem to Latina J-Lo singing, “This land is your land, this land is my land…”
From the pledge of allegiance delivered both verbally and in sign language by Fire Captain Andrea Hall to Garth Brooks, whose fan base has a lot of overlap with Trump’s base, singing Amazing Grace. (Other fun fact: Hall was the first Black woman hired and assigned to the station at the City of Albany Fire Department and then became the first Black woman to serve as fire captain at Fulton County Fire Rescue.)
It felt like the America that I know and love. The America that represents my immigrant, naturalized citizen experience that includes people of all ages, races, nationalities, socio-economic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and faiths.
Like other Inaugurations, it was also a call for peace, unification, and action.
President Biden issued this encouragement:
“History, faith, and reason show the way, the way of unity. We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature. For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward. And, we must meet this moment as the United States of America. If we do that, I guarantee you, we will not fail.”
He went on to urge us:
“But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you do, or worship the way you do, or don’t get their news from the same sources you do. We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts. If we show a little tolerance and humility. If we’re willing to stand in the other person’s shoes just for a moment. Because here is the thing about life: There is no accounting for what fate will deal you. There are some days when we need a hand. There are other days when we’re called on to lend one. That is how we must be with one another. And, if we are this way, our country will be stronger, more prosperous, more ready for the future. My fellow Americans, in the work ahead of us, we will need each other.”
Indeed, we need each other. And we need democracy to continue its hallowed traditions. As I continually say, we’ve come a long way, and there is still much work to be done. But today, I celebrate. I rest. And I couldn’t be more proud to be an American.
“The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman:
When day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade,
The loss we carry a sea we must wade.
We have braved the belly of the beast.
We have learned that quiet isn’t always peace,
And the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always justice.
And yet, the dawn is hours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it.
Somehow we have weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.
We, the successors of a country in a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves
And raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president,
Only to find herself reciting for one.
And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine
But that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge our union with purpose,
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.
And so we lift our gazes, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.
We close the divide because we know to put our future first
We must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true,
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried that we will forever be tied together.
Victorious!
Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree,
And no one shall make them afraid.
If we are to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lighten in the blade,
But in all of the bridges we have made.
That is the promise to glade, the hill be climbed.
If only we dare it because being American is more than a pride we inherit.
It is the past we step into and how we repair it.
We have seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it,
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed,
It can never be permanently defeated. In this truth, in this faith we trust. For while we had our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption. We feared it at its inception. We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour,
But within it, we found the power to author a new chapter.
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves.
So, while once we asked how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe,
Now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be.
A country that is bruised, but whole. Benevolent, but bold. Fierce and free.
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation,
Because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.
Our blunders become their burdens.
But one thing is certain, if we merge mercy with might and might with the right,
Then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.
So let us leave behind the country better than the one we were left,
With every breath in my bronze-pounded chest,
We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.
We will rise from the gold limbed hills of the west.
We will rise from the windswept northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lake rimmed cities of midwestern states.
We will rise from the sunbaked south.
We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover in every known nook of our nation
And every corner called our country.
Our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid.
A new dawn looms as we free it,
For there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it,
If only we are brave enough to be it.
[Photo credit: Field of Flags, CUNY Creative Commons]