I've said it before and I'll say it again - Joe Biden wasn't my first choice of candidate back at the start of the presidential campaign when something like 20 Democrats were running. He wasn't my last choice, but he certainly wasn't in my Top 10.
But live and learn - as it turns out, he just might be the right man for the time. We don't need another flamboyant barn-burner like the former president, but we could really use a genuinely compassionate person sincerely dedicated to unity and harmony. It looks like that just might be Joe.
Today's inauguration, scaled down due to concerns about the covid pandemic and with intense security because of insurrection threats by white supremacists, was an elegant and moving ceremony, and I'm a cynic not often moved by ceremony and tradition. But it feels like a great weight has been lifted off of the American people, and we no longer have to endure the bombastic and contentious speech of the former president.
To many people, myself very much included, the highlight of the ceremony was the reading by the young poet Amanda Gorman. Her poem, "The Hill We Climb," was at once clear-eyed and realistic but also inspirational and deeply moving, and her delivery couldn't have been more assured and spot-on. It says a lot about the future of America that President Biden (how I like the sound of that after four years of Trump) and his team selected her for the ceremony instead of some partisan firebrand or some anodyne motivational speaker.
We have many challenges ahead and there will be no shortage of controversy and scandal, I'm sure, but for one chilly but still sunny afternoon, America seemed back on track again.
Thank you, Amanda.
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