I remember it like yesterday, President Obama's last day in office. The deep despair, angst, the paranoia, the feeling of impending doom, the intense fear that cast a shadow in people's eyes, the hopelessness that weighed heavily on hearts. I remember it all.
It turns out, for the most part, we were right. The past four years have been increasingly worse. As a matter of fact, if we knew just how much lay in wait in coming years, we might have spiraled into utter, manic depression. It's one of the best gifts God has given us: the inability to know what is coming. Because, my God, knowing what I know now, I don't know how much more we could have taken the ascendancy of Trump's to the oval office.
But we did.
As with most things—thanks to our resilience and fortitude, another great gift of God to humanity—we were able to withstand hit after hit from one of the most fascist, corrupt, divisive, immoral administrations in modern history. Four HUNDRED thousand people did not [literally] survive the incompetency.
When it looked like it was almost over, at the very last minute, there was a literal threat to our democracy. This man was ready to bring to ruins, century-old norms and institutions, just to cater to his narcissism. Again, our resilience won—just barely—but we did.
Weeping may endure through the night, but joy cometh in the morning
- Psalm 30:5b
Today, in a historic (in soooo many ways) inauguration, the 46th president of these United States was sworn in before God and hundreds of millions of people watching from all over the world. In what I like to term as a testament to the fact that no matter what, God's justice and truth WILL prevail.
It's a new dawn indeed.
Joy comes in the morning indeed.
Our job is not done. We must not retreat to our respective corners, throw our hands in the air, turn our backs and continue with our lives. No, we have to be active citizens, we have to pay special attention to our immediate communities, focusing on local electoral races that bear more significance on black and brown lives often more than the office of the presidency. We have to weed out white supremacy and call out injustice and speak truth to power as long as it is in our power to do so.
But at least now we can do that knowing we have a true leader, who has promised to be the president of ALL Americans; who has promised us that his soul is in this; and who we will hold accountable, because that's the premise of a democracy: that Joe Biden is there to serve we the people.
It's easy to only talk when things are bad and forget to rejoice when joy comes. So this post is rejoicing because I lost count of all the history that was made today.
I pray that we are a society; a people that look after the least among us, that clothe the naked, feed the hungry, offer shelter to the homeless, and seek justice for the oppressed and marginalized.
Because I am convinced it is what Jesus would do.
It's a new dawn, y'all.
It's a new dawn.
Love,
I
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