Day 315…
On the Saturday following the election in 2016, Kate McKinnon, as Hillary Clinton sang Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah for the cold open of Saturday Night Live.
She sat by herself at a piano and the song caught the feeling of the moment and maybe even helped to define it.
Last night, in front of the reflecting pool between the Lincoln and Washington Memorials, Yolanda Adams sang the same song in memory of the now over 400,000 people who have lost their lives to COVID-19. Standing near President-elect and Dr. Biden and Vice-President-elect Harris and her husband Mr. Emhoff the song, for me, marked the end of these past years in the same way that it marked the beginning of it four years ago. It closed the circle.
I’m not sure I realized how much I needed to hear that memorial last night. To witness our freely elected leaders address the pandemic and acknowledge the toll that it has taken on us, for the first time since it began, was shocking in just how cathartic it was.
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you dont really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor falls, the major lifts
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Well, maybe there's a God above
As for me all I've ever learned from love
Is how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
But it's not a crime that you're here tonight
It's not some pilgrim who claims to have seen the Light
No, it's a cold and it's a very broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Dr. Biden wore a vibrant purple suit - a perfect blend of red and blue.
The memorial last night was for us all. Not just for Democrats or for Republicans, it was for all of us together who have suffered an unimaginable loss of friends, family and neighbors. That somebody understood the significance of wearing that color, almost more than anything else, made me finally, after these last fraught four years, begin to exhale.
President and Mrs. Obama have just arrived at the Capitol.
Before them Sonia Sotomayor, who will be administering the oath to Vice-President-elect Harris arrived with fellow Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.
Now, President and Secretary Clinton have pulled up and walked in. Both Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Obama are wearing purple, Mrs. Obama’s, if anything, leans to the red.
The soon to be former Vice-President and the soon to be former Senate Majority Leader have also arrived along with some Republican Senators who as recently as a few days ago were arguing against the results of the election and in some cases helping to incite an insurrection in this same building to overthrow them.
President and Mrs. Bush have just walked into the building that two weeks ago, was overrun with white supremacist insurgents who brought with them a Confederate flag and spread their feces on its surfaces. As they enter the retaken seat of our government, behind them the US Military Band is playing patriotic marches. Mrs. Bush is wearing blue.
Vice-President Dan Quayle is in attendance.
Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman who is the person who put himself in harm’s way by luring rioters upstairs and away from the location where the Vice President was sheltering, is, today, escorting Vice-President-elect Harris through the Capitol. He has been newly appointed as Acting Deputy Sargent of Arms in the House of Representatives. There is a bipartisan move afoot to award him the Congressional Medal of Honor.
It’s snowing in Washington D.C. as the Inauguration Ceremony is underway.
Lady Gaga is singing the Star-Spangled Banner in a gigantic red dress with a golden dove of peace over her left breast. It is thrilling.
Kamala Devi Harris is now the Vice-President of the United States of America.
Jennifer Lopez is singing This Land is Your Land, Woody Guthrie’s critical response to God Bless America. She then added in some of God Bless America.
Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. is now the 46th President of the United States of America.
All around us here on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, people are cheering with sheer joy and relief and banging on pots.
In his inaugural address, President Biden calls for unity.
He says that the dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer…
He says that unity is the path forward and we must meet this future as the United States of America.
He says that we must end this uncivil war.
He says that joy cometh in the morning.
Garth Brooks is now singing Amazing Grace.
The first, ever, 22-year old Youth Poet Laureate of the United States of America, Amanda Gorman is reciting a poem. She is blowing everyone else off of that stage. Remarkable.
Following the final benediction, the President and Vice President of the United States of America are making their way back inside the building so that they can head over to the White House, after they lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery, and begin the job of leading this country.
In the Hebrew tradition, the word hallelu means “to praise joyously.” “Yah,” is a shortened form of the unspoken name of God.
Hallelujah, indeed.
Let the great work begin.
Never before have I shed tears at an inauguration. They were tears of relief, joy and hope for our country.
❤️🙏❤️”......listen, hear, see each other...” President Joseph Biden
I thank you for your contribution to President Biden’s hope for our America.
and yes, I am still spinning from the words of National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman....OMG