We have recently experienced two remarkable days – Wednesday 1/6/2021, an election day on which we were gifted with a new President and the day following, in which he began reversing the appalling damage that was inflicted by his predecessor. I have seen many wondrous events in my 97 years, but suspect none will prove more memorable than this one.
Election day started for me at 7:30 AM when I turned on CNN and there were the Bidens coming down a staircase in front of the capitol to the podium at the site of the ceremony. All the forecasts said 9:00 AM was the magic moment but by then he was the president! So I was terribly pleased with my own early arrival. The ceremonies that followed went rapidly and smoothly and with no Antifa in sight. The highlight for me was a poem read by Amanda Gorman, the magical 22-year old Poet Laurate whom I knew nothing about. She read her lyrical poem “The Hill We Climb” with poise and drama that one rarely sees. And she is beautiful as well as remarkable.
Joe Biden has sometimes seemed like an old friend, he has been along so long and prominent so often. He played a secondary role in an era of giants, but recently he has taken on a new persona, as an emblem of wisdom, clearheadedness, sanity and balance in the totally mad and disoriented framework of the Trump administration.The comparison with Trump is so vividly good-vs-evil it enhances his basic goodness against this clearly abominable opponent.
The moments after the swearing-ins were immediately crowded with roll-backs of a number of odious Executive Orders that Trump has enacted. And were continued all of the next day. One after another Biden whacked the most grismal, such as our departure from the Paris Climate Change Agreement, cancellation of several immigration measures that work against diversity, and halting the start of oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge and other federal wildlife sanctuaries. He used Executive Oders as a means of speedy legislation, and often used Twitter to announce them. Next day there were many more concerning the Pandemic, immigration, and conservation. It will take months, if not years, to undo them. And some, like the wall along the Mexican border, will be very hard and expensive to tackle. But it was clear immediately that the Biden administration had worked seriously on preparing an agenda for the transfer of power, and was ready to start on it the minute he became President.
I literally felt a great weight lifting off me as I heard the news that we had won. And when I talked to friends and family I heard the same reaction in many different forms. It was suddenly apparent how overwhelmingly heavy and dark the last 4 years had been. Some found it a fog lifting, or a load of cement rising off their shoulders. Life regained color and hope and the prospect of joy. It was soooooo welcome. I had thought that President Obama’s election was the greatest political event of our time, but this one may just have surpassed it.
But I must end on a painful note. Maple Ridge has had its first case of the virus. It was a staff member who is now quarantined at home, and the results affected us all. We are now in Lockdown, which means no visits or visitors, no off-campus trips except to see a doctor, meals confined to rooms, excursions and events like movies and ping pong and crossword puzzles and just about every other pleasurable activity cancelled. Life here now is desperately dull for perhaps a month. It seems eternal, but will pass. But how does one get toothpaste, or a nail file, or a scone?
Happy New Era to all.