COVID-19 Policy Update - Inauguration
COVID-19 Policy Update
WEDNESDAY 1/20
Pausing tonight's COVID update to instead give a chance to reflect on the strength and resiliency of our democracy.
Inaugural Address by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.: Full text. Excepts:
We have learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.
We look ahead in our uniquely American way – restless, bold, optimistic – and set our sights on the nation we know we can be and we must be.
I thank my predecessors of both parties for their presence here.
But the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us.
On “We the People” who seek a more perfect Union. This is a great nation and we are a good people. Over the centuries through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we have come so far. But we still have far to go.
To overcome these challenges – to restore the soul and to secure the future of America – requires more than words. It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: Unity.
Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, and demonization have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial. Victory is never assured.
Let us listen to one another. Hear one another. See one another. Show respect to one another. Politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path.
We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts. If we show a little tolerance and humility. If we’re willing to stand in the other person’s shoes just for a moment.
Because here is the thing about life: There is no accounting for what fate will deal you. There are some days when we need a hand. There are other days when we’re called on to lend one. That is how we must be with one another.
It is a time for boldness, for there is so much to do.
And, this is certain. We will be judged, you and I, for how we resolve the cascading crises of our era.
Will we rise to the occasion? Will we master this rare and difficult hour? Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world for our children?
I believe we must and I believe we will.
'The Hill We Climb'
Amanda Gorman, the National Youth Poet Laureate
One day comes we ask ourselves "where can we find light in this neverending shade?"
The loss we carry, a sea we must wade
We braved the belly of the beast
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace
And the norms and notions of "what just is" isn't always "just is."
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.
We the successors of a country in a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president
Only to find herself reciting for one.
And yes we are far from polished, far from pristine
But that doesn't mean we aren't striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed
To all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
But what stands before us.
We close the divide because we know to put our future first
We must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
So we can reach our arms to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the glow if nothing else say, "this is true."
That even as we grieved we grew
That even as we hurt we hoped,
That even as we tired we tried
That we'll be forever tied together victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat,
But because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree,
And no one should make them afraid.
If we're to live up to our own time,
Then victory won't lighten the blade but in all the bridges we made,
That is the promise to glade,
The hill we climb.
If only we dare it because being American is more than a pride we inherit
It's the past we step into and how we repair it.
We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it,
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed,
It can never be permanently defeated.
In this truth, in this faith we trust.
For while we have our eyes on the future,
History has its eyes on us.
This is the era of just redemption we feared it at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour
But within it we found the power to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laugh or to ourselves,
So while once we ask "how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe"
Now we assert,
"How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?"
We will not march back to what was
But move to what shall be a country that is bruised but whole,
Benevolent but bold,
Fierce and free.
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation
Because know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.
Our blenders because their burdens
But one thing is certain.
If we merge mercy with might,
And might with right,
Then love becomes our legacy in change
Our children's birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left
With every breath from our bronze-pounded chest
We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limb hills of the west
We will rise from the wind-swept northeast
Where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states
We will rise from the sun-baked South
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
And every known nook of our nation
And every corner called our country
Our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid
The new dawn balloons as we free it.
For there is always light if only we are brave enough to see it.
If only we are brave enough to be it.