A New Beginning

Today America is reborn.

Today a new, compassionate administration begins. Joe Biden was not my first choice as the Democratic candidate for the highest office in the land. I wanted someone other than another old, white man. I preferred Kamala Harris (our new vice-president), a woman and a person of color and the daughter of immigrants. Or Pete Buttigieg, a gay man and a veteran. Or Andrew Yang, an Asian man. Or Julian Castro, a Hispanic. But we got Joe Biden, and I am OK with that. At least we have the first female vice-president. And Biden is a good man whose faith is an important part of who he is.

Biden has a long history in politics, but he has not lost sight of his humanity, his humility, his compassion. He understands personal loss and grief, having lost his first wife and baby daughter in a terrible car accident many years ago, and his adult son to a brain tumor more recently. As a US senator, he commuted by train from Washington, DC, to his home in Delaware every day so he could tuck his sons into bed each night. Unlike his predecessor, who never once expressed condolences or sympathy to those who lost loved ones to the coronavirus, Biden and Harris held a brief, moving ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial to honor all those lost to the virus. This was their very first stop upon arriving in the nation's capital.

The new administration has inherited a mess from the previous corrupt, self-serving, lying administration. Some of this mess is the result of gross incompetence, while the rest was deliberately created by a vile, vindictive man. The damage done over the past four years will not be undone easily, but at least we now have a president who listens to science, who cares about America and her citizens, and who has plans to confront the pandemic and other issues that face our nation.

For the first time in four years, I didn't get up this morning wondering what evil things are going to happen at the hand of the president. For the first time in four years, I have hope that America can once again become the leader of the free world. I know I won't have to listen to this president insulting others. No longer will I feel a need to mute the television when the president speaks, nor will my middle finger reflexively point to the screen. I know that this president won't taunt and insult the leaders of other countries and bring us to the verge of nuclear war

This country is in for a long, uphill battle to undo and repair the damage done during the past four years. The country is more deeply divided than it has been since the Civil War which ended more than 150 years ago and whose scars still remain. I know the new president will do things with which I will disagree.

But I am, for the first time in four years, optimistic that we now have leadership that wants to move America forward, that cares about doing what is right for the people of America, that wants to help the nation heal. How refreshing it is to see leadership that can smile and laugh and enjoy life. Gone is the dour, scowling ex-president and former first lady, both of whom always looked as if they had just consumed something sour. And I find it encouraging that the new president is bringing his two rescue dogs to live in the White House. That speaks volumes about the heart of the first family.

Our nation faces many challenges, both domestic, from those who have already tried to overturn the results of a lawful election, and international, from enemies that may try to take advantage of this country's disarray and weakness.

But once again there is hope.