How amazing that this truly historic milestone has almost largely been overshadowed by all the other…stuff. But OMG, a woman is now VP! From passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870, to women jailed for demanding the right to vote just over a hundred years ago, to the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the year I was born. And today, a woman, whose ancestors would not have been permitted to vote, has become Vice President of the US. Chills as she was sworn in. Tears as J-Lo sang “This Land is Your Land.”
And tonight, for me, maybe things feel a little bit more hopeful. We’re still in a pandemic. People are still dying. People are still hurting. People are still sick. People are still angry at others. It would be naive and probably misguided to think things will magically get better right away. Not when so many believe the lies they’ve been fed, that this isn’t legitimate and will fight against change and progress that’s coming.
But if you listened to the words of President Biden, you heard the call for unity. “And together, we shall write an American story of hope, not fear. Of unity, not division. Of light, not darkness. An American story of decency and dignity. Of love and of healing. Of greatness and of goodness,” he said.
Or the beautiful, wise words of 22-year-old Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, with her call for healing. “We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what “just” is isn’t always justice.
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it.
Somehow we weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished,” she said., “For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.” (full speech and text here)
These ideals are what I want to hang my hat on for now. That there is light, that the dark cloud will start to get smaller, that the glass ceiling for women shattered and that it’s even okay to feel a little bit hopeful.
