It's Morning in America
And for us former Protestant Christians, it feels like Christmas morning.
I have never anticipated a day as much as this one. At least, as far as I can remember. Because I am sure, when I was a child, Christmas mornings were like this.
I’m drinking at 9 am.
I have never been a morning drinker. Even after a rough night in college when I wound up regurgitating several White Russians, along with whatever repast my housemates had concocted the evening before, ruining a perfectly fine festive gathering. Even after that, I did not resort to the ‘hair of the dog’. Today, it’s celebratory drinking.
Today, I am not a cynic.
It’s morning in America. Incredibly, we have a second chance to make things right. We came so close to chaos and, perhaps, civil war. But, fortunately, we achieved “disciplined succession”. Unprecedented, of course, because this is, I am hoping, the final days of the era of unprecedented behavior. Unprecedented because the outgoing president did not attend the inauguration ceremony which, frankly, was just as well. His presence, by itself, would have been divisive.
The - former - vice president did attend. That was a positive. It’s a symbolic gesture for the world to see that we can, if only momentarily, put our differences behind us.
Lady Gaga singing the National Anthem. Jennifer Lopez singing This Land is Our Land, segueing into America, the Beautiful and then inserting some Spanish for good measure. Garth Brooks with a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace and even exhorting attendants and watchers to sing along with the last verse. Brooks, who is definitively not a Democrat, said it was not “a political statement, but a statement of unity.”
The highlight, other than seeing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris sworn in to office, was National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman’s poem, “The Hill We Climb”. Apparently, she finished it the night of January 6th, 2021. Apparently, like our new president, as a young child, she suffered a speech impediment. Now, at the age of 22, she is the youngest inaugural poet.
We've 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 have our eyes on the future,
history has its eyes on us.
I am guessing she is a Hamilton fan because that last line echoes one of the recurring verses in one of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s tunes. A song delivered by George Washington’s character, played by Christopher Jackson, with the title “History Has It’s Eyes On You”. A haunting tune.
It’s extremely fitting because, as a brand spanking new nation, based on these glorious ideals which we fell far short of applying universally then and continue to struggle with their application now, one man who could have been the first American king, was willingly transferring his power to another. With Joe Biden’s inauguration, democracy lived to fight another day in 2021 just as it did in 1797 when Washington ceded to Adams, and just as it would following the Civil War.
Nothing is guaranteed, however.
We must savor the soaring emotions of today. We earned them. For four years, we resisted the siren call of a “do-nothing” administration at a period of history when doing nothing was the exact opposite of what was needed. Doing nothing, maintaining the status quo, is not the answer going forward.
America cannot afford to be laissez-faire, isolationist or reactionary. All of which we were becoming under the outgoing administration.
So, we take our day, or a few days, or whatever amount of time is needed, but we can never go back to indifference, or a lackadaisical attitude, about how our country is managed. There are too many topics that need to be addressed. All of which were baldly exposed over the last few years.
Elie Wiesel was quoted as saying:
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
As a nation, it has become clear, we can no longer afford indifference. Indifference leads to the kind of anarchy we witnessed last Wednesday. Indifference leads to electing politicians who are insufferable and short-sighted. Indifference leads to needless death at the hands of ineptitude. Indifference short changes all of us when decisions about our lives are being made. Indifference leads to silence and silence is unacceptable if you want to call yourself a citizen.
If you want to take advantage of what it means to call yourself an American.
Rest. It’s a glorious day.
Tomorrow we start rebuilding America. We begin building a better America. Or as corporate America likes to put it in all of their advertising, a ‘new and improved’ America.
Under new management. Glory be. On to my second drink of the day!
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Marc Elias of Democracy Docket says it is not enough to resist, we have to be pro-active. I agree. His emphasis is on voting rights and I agree about that as well. Everything that touches upon voting is key to a healthy democracy. His article, Resistance is Not Enough, talks about a few tasks we definitely need to tackle.
Graphic: democracydocket.com
Also, as alert ass readers, y’all know I am wildly in favor of some kind of American version of universal health care. But, as I have discovered, if you have the means and the tenacity, you can find alternatives in our current non-system that ‘the system’ really doesn’t want you to be aware of.
For instance, I circumvented ‘the system’ when it came to blood tests for my Hepatitis C. I went and got my blood tests directly from the source rather than going through my primary care doctor because the difference in price was astronomical. Who knew you could go directly to the people who do hospital’s lab results? Well, I didn’t.
Take a listen to what this guy has to say:
I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind, but now I see. - JLM