We have a new Vice President.  The first woman, the first Black person, the first person of Asian heritage, a child of immigrants, former Attorney General from California and former United States Senator, Kamala Harris met destiny on this cold, and sunny day.

We have a new President.  A few minutes before noon, Joseph R. Biden, Jr. placed his left hand on a worn bible, steeped in his family’s history, raised his right hand, and swore to defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  And it was done.  The boy from Scranton who came to the Senate as its youngest member was now - almost 50 years later - the oldest inaugurated and 46th President of the United States.

In his inauguration address, President Biden promised to protect us from the enemies within.  He promised to save us from the scourge of COVID-19 by providing vaccines to make us well.  He promised to revive and restore Main Street economy and get us back to work.  He promised to make it safe for our children to return to school.  He promised racial justice and true equality for us all.  He promised to unite us as one America and to be the President for all Americans whether they voted for him or not.

He spoke quietly, firmly, with conviction – looking straight at the camera, straight at each of us and, at one point stated that “the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us.”

And when he had finished and sat down, a sprite of a woman in a bright yellow coat and a perky red hat stepped to the podium.  She was there at the invitation of Dr. Jill Biden who had heard her at a poetry reading and is impressed with her talent.  Young (22), gifted (youth poet laureate of the U.S.), and Black, Amanda Gorman read - no, performed - the poem she had written for the occasion, titled “The Hill We Climb.“   

Her poem begins with a question:  “When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?”  It ends with the answer: “When day comes, we step out of the shade… For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.  If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

The President often tells us that there is nothing we can’t do if we do it together.  And we believe him.  Because we want to.  Because we need to.  Because we long for something better, happier, filled with hope and promise for the future, and because we are unsure if or how we can accomplish what we need and want on our own.   We are not sure we can be brave.

This is why we keep climbing the hill…so that by the time we reach the top and can see the expansive view around us, we will understand that we have what it takes to become the light and be the invincible people we are meant to be for our children, for ourselves, for each other, and for our country.

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