Day #322: Inauguration Day (was yesterday)

 I decided last night to do a bunch of reading and finish a bunch of almost read books, so I post about the inauguration today.

I don't have a ton of memory of inaugurations. Like a lot of people, I was in school or work for a lot of them. It's a nice tradition but up until this year didn't have a huge amount of significance.

I read somewhere that a constitutional scholar from an Eastern European country said to an American scholar, you don't know what the most important day in your country's history is. The guy made a few guesses and the scholar said no, it's March 4, 1801. March 4, 1801 made ZERO impression on this scholar of American history and his colleague said to him, that's when your country made the peaceful transition of power from one party to another.

One thing historians have pointed out is what a huge thing it was for George Washington to step down after 2 terms. He could have run for a third and probably would have been re-elected by an overwhelming majority, served until his death and handed his legacy on to his successors. And that's what many if not most revolutionary leaders have done in world history. They get elected and then they have power and they stay there. But Washington stepped down and John Adams, his vice president, succeeded him, with Thomas Jefferson as VP. (In early days, the winner of the election was the president and the runner up was VP, having Adams and Jefferson who detested each other fill those roles made everyone realize that was a terrible idea and the Constitution was amended.) In the election of 1800, Jefferson beat Adams and on March 4, 1801 (inaugurations were in March until FDR) Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican party (that's not a typo, Jefferson was a firm believer in the idea of a democratic republic and was anti-Federalist, his party is the ancient ancestor of today's Democratic party) took over power. Peacefully. No one rioted in the streets...in a lot of the world the reaction to winning is to kill the losers and the reaction to losing is to declare war, but in America we hand power from party to party and it's so elemental to our process that we literally don't even think about it and most people just go to work and watch it later if at all.

Nothing about how we live now is normal, though and for weeks the sitting President has been open about his intentions to hold onto his office. But after the riots of 2 weeks ago, he's basically been sidelined and it was the VP who stood in and promised that, with the help of the National Guard, there would be peaceful transition of power.

I've never been the world's biggest fan of Mike Pence. He's cut from the cultural conservative religiously pious group of Republicans that seem to think the word of God is on their side and they bug me. But I have always felt that he is a person who would respect the rule of law and the office that was entrusted to him in a way every other President of my lifetime has, and he proved to be that person this week. There is a point at which the job is largely ceremonial, being the representation of America, not just the America that agrees with you but the entire country and he did that. It will be interesting to see what his party thinks of him going forward. It will be interesting to see what happens to his party at all.

Anyway, prior to yesterday the only inauguration I remember watching was in 2009, Obama's first. I went to a librarians conference in Denver and I was in town a few days early to spend time with my sister. She was a stay at home mom at that time, she was home during the first several years of her kids' lives, and a couple of her friends wanted to watch the inauguration together, to celebrate the first black president. We popped champagne and had mimosas and it was fun. I don't remember a lot about the ceremony itself, except that after Biden was sworn in my sister spit out her drink and said, oh, my, God, he's gone, let's toast now! Meaning, of course, that it was the end of Dick Cheney.

I didn't know what to make of yesterday and I wasn't sure I wanted the kids to watch because there had been so much worry about violence. But James feels really invested in this election. I let him help me with the ballot, so as far as he is concerned he voted for the president and he remembers how excited we were when the election was finally called. And he doesn't have live school sessions on Wednesday mornings. So I got up about 8:30 (in our time zone the President's inauguration is at 9, so the actual broadcast starts around 8) and turned it on.

It was actually quite lovely. J-Lo, who I'm also not a huge fan of, even before she started dating A-Rod, sang This Land is Our Land and yelled one nation under God in Spanish, that was a nice touch. I didn't think Lady Gaga's National Anthem was as good as everyone else seemed to. The poet Amanda Gorman KILLED IT, the world seems to be in agreement on that, and we sang Amazing Grace with Garth Brooks and got teary. The President spoke, he's not much of an orator, but it was a nice enough speech, it was great to see VP Harris make history and of course she and Dr. Biden and Mrs. Obama all looked stellar. But what I couldn't stop looking at was Mike Pence...sitting next to the Bidens, managing the transition of power, representing the outgoing government...doing what presidents do. And realizing how much the symbolism of that transfer of power matters. 

And now it's over. And I honestly don't care what happens to Trump. Except I don't want to see him again but I know I'm going to. And it's going to take a long time for it to feel normal. Because it hasn't felt normal for a long time. And I think it's gonna be a long time...maybe decades...before we know how close we came to losing it all. And maybe it wasn't that close. But that's the thing. We just don't know.

And I have one facebook friend...I just feel for her. An older lady, my dad's age. A choir friend. A conservative. And we've never agreed on anything and that's okay because I can live like that. But she's not one of the grieving don't know what Biden's gonna do to the economy sort. She's the fully bought in this thing was stole the tech companies are stealing our lives Jesus is coming tomorrow types. And I wish I could reach out to her but I can't. There are others like her and it makes me sad and scared. I don't understand how they can live in that kind of fear and anger and not have it destroy them. Because ultimately, that's what brought down Trump. Fear, anger, and hubris. The Democrats couldn't bring him down. A year ago, I thought he was headed for a pretty easy re-elect. The only way to get him out of there...was for him to self destruct.

I don't know what tomorrow brings. God knows Joe Biden is far from perfect and no savior. But that's the thing. Biden isn't Jesus. His job is to try to hold the country together, run the agencies that keep it functioning and as secure as possible. Which brings us to media consumption.

One of the books I finished last night was A Promised Land, Barak Obama's first presidential memoir. And OMG that thing is way too long. Like 768 pages. I listened to it. God knows I couldn't read that much. Too long. Needed editing. But it did serve as a reminder of how important it all is.

The other books: two historical fiction stories voiced by young Black narrators: The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones, set in 1955 Alabama, which was good and Loretta Little Looks Back, set in 1920s-1960s Mississipi, which was AMAZING. Any book in which Fannie Lou Hamer is a guest star is okay with me. The other book was Woke: a young poet's guide to justice, which was honestly underwhelming. A lot of people talking at kids, not a lot of space to encourage them to talk.

Josh and I also finished Community tonight...OMG so ready to be done, the last couple of seasons of that show are not good, and I'm close to finishing 30 Rock, which is good but doesn't age well.

Today I'm grateful for hugs, rest, my husband being a rock star, date night, noodles, dark chocolate, children being independent, playing with Max, and one more day on this great planet with the people I love. And a new leader.