Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were inaugurated as President and Vice President on Wednesday, January 20, 2021. It’s been a long four years of living through lies, incompetence and watching our norms and institutions being damaged. I wanted to celebrate Biden’s win on November 3rd, but the vote wasn’t declared till November 7th due to the counting of mail-in ballots. Then Trump pathetically tried to declare victory before the counting was completed, he refused to concede, denied the ascertainment needed for the transition to begin, filed 62 frivolous losing lawsuits challenging the election results without providing any evidence, called state officials begging them to “find” votes to overturn the election, continued to repeatedly declare widespread voter fraud without any proof causing his supporters to believe the election had been stolen who in turn called their representatives and Senators who then challenged the electoral college vote certification on January 6th. Then he incited an insurrection causing his supporters to storm the Capitol to stop the certification. Even though they caused deaths, desecration and destruction, the vote was finally certified. Then I had to wait two long weeks for Inauguration Day while wondering if there was anything else that could stop the transition.
Finally, I got to celebrate after two and a half months of election results turmoil. I cried tears of joy most of the day as I watched the inauguration activities. Now, the fight to eliminate the virus and rescue the economy has begun, and the lies and incompetence has ended.
Sadly, however, white nationalists, anti-government militias, QAnon, Republican obstructionists, and average Trump supporters stand in opposition to healing. Right wing media will continue to divide us and disperse the lies that created a space for a dangerous autocrat to rise to power, and will continue to attack democracy.
Are we on the path to healing as a nation or is this just a short reprieve until the next election? We must be vigilant and truth must prevail!
reilly m gray 