Here’s to renewal and resolve in 2021 and beyond
The inauguration of the 46th president of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. and Vice President Kamala Devi Harris was a grand panoply of history, color and talent. A sense of renewal imbued the festivities as familiar faces of past presidents (bar one), first ladies (bar one), and a number of Supreme Court justices, senators and members of the U.S. House of Representatives participated in the ceremony, bridging the great partisan divide, even if only for a day. Yet, a feeling of lurking danger persisted throughout the day. A pandemic, disunity and disinformation have been leveling us of late. And the huge cheering crowds of previous inaugurations were conspicuously absent on the Mall. There were many firsts and highs on Inauguration Day. America now celebrates the oldest president in our history. This is a stupendous mark of resilience, a sign of the endurability of 78-year-old President Biden and his never-say-die enthusiasm. We also celebrate Kamala Devi Harris to the vice presidency; the first woman to this position who checks many other first labels: Indian American, Jamaican American, Black American and Asian American. A small niggling issue: Harris’ middle name “Devi” was a wee bit mispronounced during the ceremony. (Devi is the Sanskrit word for goddess and is phonetically pronounced “theyvee” and not “davie.”) And the nation has, for the first time, a second gentleman: Mr. Douglas Emhoff. We also saw the youngest inaugural poet, the first national poet laureate,22-year-old Amanda Gorman, a Californian, read aloud a poem she had written for the occasion. “Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished,” she recited, her words soaring with eloquence. There was a sense of history unfolding every single minute of that occasion, even as we were reminded of ever present dangers in almost every speech made, with Vice President Harris urging us to summon “the courage to see beyond crisis,” and to Gorman’s questioning “where can we find light in this never-ending shade?” The mix of hope and peril was apt.
