New People!

January 20, 2021

Since about Nov 7, when Biden’s victory was finally assured, I thought I had adjusted to the idea that we will have a new president and that the other guy was finally headed for the dustbin of history.

But it wasn’t until today that it felt real. Today was official; there were bibles and oaths. The blowhard is really and truly out; he actually got on a plane bound for golf-land and left us, mercifully, alone to revel in our new, drama-free, inspiring world.

Today was definitely Biden’s day, democrats’ day, a day for all of America and Americans of all stripes. I’m filled to the brim with optimism and hope. Today was glorious and proud-full.

But in and amongst all the joy and tears (there were lots of both), there was also this flood of immeasurable relief. I’m not sure which feels better: Biden’s vision of unity and the promise of a beautiful, just, diverse future (tear-worthy!), or a world free of the toxic, steaming turd that has dominated every single day for FIVE years (also tear-worthy!). I mean, this has been a truly awful, mind-numbing presidency. Five years of daily shock, worry, despair. I’ve just ran out of words to describe how dispiriting and disturbing it’s been… his profound, creepy pathologies that revealed a developmentally stunted man… un-evolved, entitled and lazy. Impossible to deal with the shock that he was actually the president of us. Harder still to fathom: the crazy number of people who worship him (still). He was, of course, stunningly unfit for the job, a job he couldn’t be bothered to learn or grow in. So we were all just battered daily by his revolting, mean, relentless drivel. And when he lost the election, it got worse, and truly scary. His lies about fraud and a stolen election incited his thuggish animals into full blown terrorism.

So today was just this great, lung-clearing exhale. Not only is he finally out of the White House (shudder.. and oh, by the way, it cost like half a million dollars to clean the place of his germs and stench), nothing horrible happened today — no murderous insurgents, no confederate flags, no long wispy-bearded guys with guns frothing nonsense about stolen elections.

And today he flew away and nobody paid attention outside his small gaggle of sycophants at Joint Base Andrews (his idea of a huge military send-off did not come to pass and great gobs of invitees opted out of attending in favor of showing up at Biden’s Inauguration). No media coverage. Nobody talked about him. Nobody cares. He’s instantly irrelevant. He can’t even rant on Twitter, since he’s been banned for life. Maybe FOX is still watching his every move and talking about him (and crying in their beer, I imagine)… I don’t know.

And here I am.. talking about him!! On a day when he’s become a has-been. Okay, but here’s what I realized: I never have to write about him again! He’s done and out of our daily lives. He can’t hurt us anymore.

Here are some photos on the day:

The Inauguration Ceremony was quite good… and Biden’s comments were encouraging:

But this… this is really good for so many reasons:

By far, though, Amanda Gorman’s poem, and her delivery, inspired me the most:

Because of the pandemic, no Inaugural balls. But far more egalitarian — a celebration we could all join — the Inauguration Celebration Concert thingie.. a little hit and miss, but a worthy production! And the whole event concluded with a firework display that I just could barely believe.. it was so huge and stunning and seemed to take place all over Washington, DC. Absolutely breathtaking.