The first event of Inauguration Day happened at about 5:30 p.m., a memorial to the now-400,000 Covid-19 deaths since last January.  There were 400 lights, each signifiying one-thousand deaths.  It was brief and very impressive.  A nurse sang “Amazing Grace” – her singing has gone viral.  Here’s tonight on YouTube.  Note the second song at the same space, sung at the same event.

3:30 a.m. Jan. 20: This initial comment on soon-president Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris will be very brief.

They are the perfect team to lead this country at a time of incredible crisis in many areas.  There’s will be an extremely difficult job.  All presidents have extremely difficult jobs – impossible to please everyone – but Jan. 20, 2021, is near the top of any list I can imagine, including WWII.  But that’s a conversation for later.

I have liked Joe Biden since the beginning.  His strengths are just exactly what our country needs.  I’ve mentioned them before: he’ll change the tone of our country; he has far more relevant experience than most anyone who’s ever run for the office, local office, U.S. Senate, Vice-President.

His life experience has amplified his empathy for others.

His mantra will be, I think, helping the United States of America, which includes all states and all of us.

I don’t know as much about Kamala Harris, but the fact that Mr. Biden chose her has great meaning; and she is the first woman, to have ever held the office and for this and many other reasons everyone knows will bring a new and fresh perspective to governing this country.

The critical link, now, will be every single one of us.  To continue to be for, and not against.  As the sidewalk sign I saw at the beginning of the Covid-19 epidemic said so well on April 8, 2020: “Smile.  We will get through this Together!”

Forward.

POSTNOTE: Yesterday, I took the hour and 50 minutes to watch, on-line, the 2011 film “The Wave”, about a high school teacher who did an experiment with autocracy.  The film is German, subtitled, and is very powerful and appropriate, especially for today’s unrest in the U.S.  I rented it through Amazon for $3.99.  I think it is available at other places as well.  Tomorrow night a group of us will do an on-line conversation about it.  If you are interested, check the website for Global Solutions MN, and scroll down to Third Thursday films.  This is a continuing program and you are invited to participate from wherever you live.

POSTNOTE 2: One of the headlines in The Washington Post columns this morning says “Joe Biden’s fundamental challenge is to root out the domestic insurgency” by David Ignatius.  I agree, but only to the extent that the task really falls to each and every one of we citizens where we live.  We know these people in our own environments.

COMMENTS (more at end of post):

From Mary K: Smile, we will get through this. God Bless America  I will look for “The Wave”. Ciao.

from Fred: Nicely stated. I agree with your depiction of Joe Biden and, as the shadow from the last four years lifts, look hopefully to the future.

from Lydia: [See] link to April 1961 Speech by JFK on the press (you can read or listen to it). I immediately thought you’d find it of interest/inspiration.

from CNN’s “Reliable Sources” for Jan. 17, 2021: Remember how presidents used to speak?

With Biden about to take over, it’s a good day to read or re-read inaugural speeches, and other compelling addresses by past presidents. I re-read John F. Kennedy’s 1961 speech to newspaper publishers, which contains a lot of wisdom about democracy, national security, and the power of the press. Kennedy spoke of “our obligation” — both his and the news media’s — “to inform and alert the American people, to make certain that they possess all the facts that they need, and understand them as well — the perils, the prospects, the purposes of our program and the choices that we face.” Read or listen to the speech here…