J-Speaks: The Most Important Inaugural Address of Our Present Day

 

Four years ago, the United States of America heard an Inaugural Address of how one person can make the lives of its citizens better. That resulted in a division amongst us economically, religiously, and racially that led to a pandemic that has killed almost 400,000 Americans. Created racial division that has led to the unnecessary deaths of too many minorities to count. Also, it brought a siege of the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago that scared, angered, and terrorized the souls of this nation because those individuals felt the person they voted to re-elect got robbed. After a contentious election that was not decided until Nov. 7, 2020, and that storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, our nation heard the voice of the 46^th President of the United States and how with his leadership will we have better days ahead.

At 12 p.m. on Wednesday Jan. 20 with his longtime wife by his side Jill, his children Hunter, Naomi, and Ashley on stage, surrounded by Congress, the former Vice President of the United States, three former Presidents, including the one he served alongside as Vice President for the two previous terms in Barack Obama (D) and his wife Michelle, Joesph Robinette Biden, Jr., was sworn in as the 46^th President of the United States of America.

This was also a history making day as Vice President Kamala Harris, the former U.S. Senator (D-CA) and former Attorney General of California from 2011-2017 became the first African American, South Asian American, and woman to be elected to the highest-ranking female official in the history of our nation’s government.

After being introduced by U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and sworn in by Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, holding his hand on a 130-year-old family bible, the 78-year-old Biden, the oldest President of our nation began his 21-minute Inaugural Speech by saying that this Inauguration Day was democracy’s day. A day of history and hope. A renewal and resolve.

“Through a crucible for the ages, America’s been tested a new. And America has risen to the challenge,” Mr. Biden called this moment. “Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause. The cause of democracy.”

“The people. The will of the people have been heard. And the will of the people has been heeded.”

Mr. Biden said that this past General Election and what has followed from the several recounts, the constant berating of his predecessor Mr. Donald J. Trump, who was not at the Inauguration and his allies both in Congress, in his inner circle and in the media that tried to get the election overturned through the courts that democracy is very “precious.” That it is “fragile.” But on this day with the election of Mr. Biden and Mrs. Harris and those that came before them that democracy did prevail.

Our democracy though had it biggest test ever when two weeks back, thousands of people stormed the U.S. Capitol after hearing the words of Mr. Biden’s predecessor, his family and a few members of his inner circle stormed the U.S. Capitol where they took government property, sat in the chambers of the U.S. Senate, rummaged through government documents, tangled with members of local, state, and local law enforcement.

That resulted in the death of five people and brought a disdain to our country that brought into clear view that we have two Americas. One where Caucasians storming the U.S. Capitol can be seen as friends, and how if that if it were minorities trying to storm the U.S. Capitol it would have ended in thousands of deaths and many more arrests.

“So now, on this hollow ground where just a few days ago, violence sought to sake the Capitol’s very foundation. We’ve come together as one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all,” Biden said in reference to the Pledge of Allegiance to our U.S. Flag. “To carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.”

While this is a moment for our nation to look ahead in our unique way with a restlessness filled with boldness, optimism of setting our sites of becoming the nation we can be and need to be.

That boldness and optimism Mr. Biden said we can be is because behind him on that Capitol stage were his predecessors from both parties in former Presidents in the aforementioned Barack Obama (D), Bill Clinton (D), George W. Bush (R) and their spouses in Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State under Mr. Obama. Mr. Biden also saluted former President Jimmy Carter (R), who was not on hand for the Inaugural ceremony.

Mr. Biden proceeded to talk about the sacred oath that first taken by George Washington and those that came after him about how the American story and its continued existence only happens when we all pitch in and not just a few us. Not just those that have the wealth and the bigger microphone but those who can speak to their community, their state or section of the nation.

“This is a great nation. We’re good people,” Mr. Biden said. “And over the centuries through storm and strife, and in peace and in war, we’ve come so far. But we still have far to go. We’ll press forward with speed and urgency for we have much to do.”

That laundry list that awaits Mr. Biden and our nation is to eradicate the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic that has killed over 400.000 people and counting. A virus that has taken more lives in one year than what our nation lost in all of World War II.

This pandemic also has cost millions of Americans their jobs as a plethora of businesses have closed, many of them for good.

That is why it is imperative for Congress and President Biden to put together a stimulus package that brings much needed aide to our nation from getting vaccination to defeat COVID-19 and to stimulate our economy with jobs and capital that will get our cities and towns back to the thriving levels that they were before the worldwide pandemic, but more equal and prosperous for all and not just those at the top of the economic food chain.

Along with dealing with the Pandemic, it is on us to deal with racial injustice that is over four centuries in the making after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Ahmaud Arbery, and many other minorities before them and after by those sworn to protect them.  

That racial reckoning also played a part in the storming of the U.S. Capitol where many of those that did and were rooted on by many in Congress stems from the fact that people different looking and with different ideals from them thought they were coming to take the America that they love from them.

It also put in danger many of those in Congress like the now former Vice President Mike Pence, who was urged by Mr. Trump to overturn the election, even though he under the rule of law of our nation he could not.

That has given rise to an extremism that nearly took down our nation, but instead has given our nation a resolve and fortitude to push back against political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism against government institution while not perfect but have been a big reason why many across the globe saw us as the nation where everyone feels when they come here can become anything they want to be.

Mr. Biden said that we can no longer ignore the cries from our nation or the planet itself and that we must and will confront and defeat.

For us to restore the “soul” of our nation will require according to Mr. Biden more than words. It requires the most elusive all things in our democracy, “unity.”

Mr. Biden then proceeded to make reference to January 1, 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. That moment Mr. Biden said when the late Lincoln put pen to paper, the President said, “If my name ever goes down in the history, it will be for this act. And my whole soul is in it.”

“Bringing America together. Uniting our people. Uniting our nation,” Mr. Biden added. “And I ask every American to join me in this cause.”

Mr. Biden then said that his “whole soul” is in this trying moment in our nation of uniting all citizens. Uniting our entire nation, where he asked all American citizens to join him in this cause of healing our divided nation and being united against our foes both foreign and domestic. It is how we will combat against extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness, and hopelessness.

“With unity we can do great things, important things,” Mr. Biden said. “We can right wrongs. We can put people to work in good jobs. We can teach our children in safe schools. We can overcome the deadly [COVID-19] virus. We can reward work and rebuild the middle class and make health care secure for all. We can deliver racial justice, and we can make America once again the leading force in the world.”

What the last four years have taught us though that speaking of unity can be a foolish fantasy, especially after what happened where Mr. Biden spoke two weeks ago.

That we do have some serious forces that have divided us so much, just even the inclination of trying to find common ground with some we disagree with from our family members, co-workers, even our friends seems to much to take on.

The things that divide us are very real but these differences are not new. These differences amongst others are major parts of the history of this nation. One of the major of differences includes the ideal that we are all created equal and the reality that racism, nativism, fear, and demonization have split us in many directions.

This battle seeming has been everlasting, with victory never being a sure thing as demonstrated by many events in our country from the Civil War; The Great Depression; World War I and II; and 9/11.

“Through struggle, sacrifice and setback, our better angels have always prevailed,” Mr. Biden said. “In each of these moments, enough of us, enough of us have come together to carry all of us forward. And we can do that now. History, faith, and reason show the way. The way of unity.”

“We must end this civil war that pits red against blue [Republicans against Democrats]. The rural versus urban. Conservative versus Liberal.”

It is only through unity that we can see our neighbor not as our enemy but as our ally. That we can treat each other with dignity and respect, even when we disagree. We can join force, stop the shouting, and completely lower the temperature.

Without that unity Mr. Biden said, we will have no peace. We will only have bitterness and fury. We will also have no progress but exhausting outrage. A nation that is not united but instead in a constant state of chaos.

We saw under Mr. Biden’s former predecessor what our nation looks like when we have constant division. Mr. Biden is choosing a path of governing with unity as his North Star, which will hopefully be our North Star.

Mr. Biden and First Lady Jill Biden showed that unity by inviting the leadership of both parties to attend morning mass with him on Wednesday morning. In the afternoon, he and Vice President Harris laid a wreath at the Toom of the Unknown Soldier with three of his predecessors in the aforementioned Mr. Clinton, the 42 President of our nation alongside former Secretary of State and 2016 Presidential Candidate in 2016 Hillary (D), Bush 43 alongside former First Lady Laura Bush and Mr. Obama and his mentioned wife Mrs. Obama.

In order for us to be the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, to exist in a world where climate change is meet with urgency and passiveness, where social justice is real and not just something we shout in a protest, we must let as Mr. Biden said unity be our path forward as the United States of America.

“If we do that, I guarantee you we will not fail,” Mr. Biden said. “We have never, ever, ever, ever, ever failed in America when we’ve acted together.”

That togetherness though will only happen if we are willing to start to listen, hear, see, show respect to one another again.

Politics is something that should be something people approach with passion, determination, relentlessness, and pride. It does not need to be approach with the notion of there is always a ragging fire that will destroy everything and everyone in its path deemed not to be on the same side of an issue or cause. Any disagreement that we have does not need to result in all out war.  

That really means the rejection of facts being manipulated or manufactured to suit that person or groups self-interest.

It is that misinformation that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol who thought they could use violation to overturn the will of the people. To halt the work of our democracy.

It is that siege of the U.S. Capitol that led to Mr. Trump being impeached, with 10 Congressional Republicans voting to do so along with all Congressional Democrats.

As horrible as that moment was on Jan. 6, it was also a moment where we saw bravery when U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who greeted Mr. Biden, Mrs. Harris and their families when they arrived at Capitol Hill, the same place where he held a violent Trump mob at bay so that Congressman can be led to safety.  

“It did not happen. It will never happen. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever,” Mr. Biden said of our nation bowing down and accepting hatred, violence and misinformation being our North Star.

Our nation has shown that we can live up to our ideals when we work together. We have shown through a determination and commitment to greatness that we can all achieve both individually and collectively greatness.

It was 108 years ago at 1840 Inaugural 1,000 of protestors tried to deny women to march for the right to vote.

That brave act those many years ago is what led to the historic moment of our nation voting and swearing in of the first as mentioned earlier the first woman, the first African American woman and first woman of Asian decent to the second highest office in our land in Kamala Harris. She also became the first woman from a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) to be sworn in to the second highest national office in our nation.  

When Vice President Harris took her oath to the office, with her husband and our nation’s First Husband Doug Emhoff by her side, it was conducted by Bronx, NY born U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor.

It was a moment that let every little girl and woman see as clear as day that they can be anything they want to be, even Vice President and someday President of the United States.  

This inauguration also represented what our nation could be, a melting pot of many cultures on full display.

That was something outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo feels we are not as he Tweeted @SecPompeo on Jan. 19, “Woke-ism, multiculturalism, all the -isms--they’re not who America is. They distort our glorious founding and what this country is all about. Our enemies stoke these divisions because they know they make us weaker.”

Mr. Pompeo also said in that same Tweet, “Censorship, wokeness, political correctness, it all points in one direction-authoritarianism, cloaked as moral righteousness.”

That righteousness was on full display in terms of the entertainment that took place during the inauguration from superstar artists Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga, to 22-year-old National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman. 

One part the youngest Inaugural Poet said in a ready from her poem "The Hill We Climb," “While democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.” 

"We've braved the belly of the beast. We've learned that quiet isn't always peace. And the norms and notions of what just is isn't always justice." 

"Let the globe if nothing else say this is true. That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped that even as we tired, we tried that will forever be tied together. Victorious, not because that we will never again know defeat. But because we will never again sew division." 

It was also displayed between the new Vice President in Mrs. Harris and her husband and her predecessor in Mike Pence, and their spouses. It was their first real conversation since the contentious 2020 General Election.

This Inauguration was also about showing respect to the 74 million people that chose to vote to re-elect Donald Trump for President.

While Mr. Biden said that he was “humbled” by the faith they placed in him and Mrs. Harris, he said to those that chose Mr. Trump over him, he said to “take” a measure of him and his heart. If they still disagree with how he will lead our nation “so be it.”

“That’s democracy. That’s America,” Mr. Biden added. “The right to decent peaceably within the guardrails of our republic. It’s perhaps the nation’s greatest strength.”

That said, Mr. Biden said those disagreements cannot lead to disunion. He pledged that he will be a President for “all Americans.” That he will fight just as hard for those that did not support him as for those who did.

During his speech, Mr. Biden asked a question derived from St. Augustine, a Saint from his church wrote that a people was a multitude that is defined by commons objects of their love.

Some of those common objects that Mr. Biden feels that Americans love that define are but not limited to opportunity, security, liberty dignity, respect, honor, and above all the truth.

The truth of the matter is that four years ago our nation elected for President in Donald J. Trump that put a full-scale assault on the liberty, security, dignity, honor on all those that opposed him and those that saw the truth as their North Star like Democrats, the media, minorities, and immigrants.

That led to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic that has crippled our nation, while talking over 400,000 lives and counting, and our standing in the world. We have a racial divide that has taken many minorities at the hands of those sworn to protect us.

On Nov. 3, 2020, our nation decided that we needed a new direction and chose to elect Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris, who feel and have stated that liberty, security, dignity, honor, and the truth are and have to be our North Star if we will reach our greatest ideal of who we are as a nation or better.

We have new leadership in The White House and In the United State Congress (Senate and House of Representatives). Even with that, if we want a better future, it is up to us to find common ground in the areas we agree. To not let our many differences sidetrack or create an even bigger divide that already exist.

Yes, we have a new President in Joe Biden. We have a new Vice President in Kamala Harris, the first woman, African American woman, and Asian Woman to be elected to second highest federal office in our nation.

However, this happened under the tightest security in our nation. With federal and national guard troops all across our nation’s capital because of the siege that took place on Jan. 6. It also had those that were in attendance wearing mask as show of what we all need to do for now until we are all vaccinated. The famed National Mall facing Capitol Hill was filled with flags.

We have come a long way as a nation. But we still have a long way to go. We will only have a better nation if we choose as Mr. Biden said unity over division. Respect over disrespect. Love over hate.

Information and quotations are courtesy of 1/20/2021 11 a.m. ABC News’ “The Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden,” with George Stephanopoulos, Linsey Davis, David Muir, Rahm Emanuel, and Chris Christie; 1/20/2021 6:30 p.m. “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” with report from White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes; https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-signs-emancipation-proclamation; https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/justices.aspx;  https://en.m.wikpedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamla_Harris.