“To Heal, We Must Remember”

One of the great tragedies of the past year, as some 400,000 Americans lost their lives to Covid-19, was not only that many victims died alone — their loved ones robbed of the chance to say goodbye — but that the pain of that loss was whitewashed by a President who chose to minimize and deny it.

In a somber ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial on Tuesday night that was his first stop in Washington, President-elect Joe Biden signaled that honoring that grief and the terrible toll of the last year would be at the very heart of his administration. Elected because of his empathy and his compassion for Americans, who are suffering through a confluence of crises that have created a time of great uncertainty, Biden spoke just a few words as the sun set over the National Mall, casting a rosy glow in the twilight. 

The President-elect told Americans he shared in their grief — with his own understanding deepened by the loss of his first wife and daughter in a car accident as a young man and the loss of his son Beau to cancer at the age of 46.

“It’s hard sometimes to remember, but that’s how we heal. It’s important to do that as a nation,” Biden said in brief remarks before 400 lights were illuminated along the edges of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, marking the more than 400,000 Americans who have died from Covid-19. 

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He and his wife, Jill Biden, watched in silence, alongside Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, as the reflections of the lights glimmered in the water. Hundreds of towns, cities and communities across the country joined in the tribute, lighting up buildings from the Empire State Building in New York to the Space Needle in Seattle. Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, delivered the invocation and gospel singer Yolanda Adams performed “Hallelujah” after Biden spoke.

Harris spoke briefly at the memorial, noting that “for many months, we have grieved by ourselves. Tonight, we grieve and begin healing together.”

“Though we may be physically separated, we, the American people, are united in spirit and my abiding hope, my abiding prayer, is that we emerge from this ordeal with a new wisdom: to cherish simple moments, to imagine new possibilities and to open our hearts just a little bit more to one another,” Harris said.

The President-elect arrived in Washington, DC, on Tuesday for the start of his inaugural ceremonies at a dark moment in American history, preparing to take his oath of office as the US passes 400,000 coronavirus deaths and is more divided than at any time since the Civil War.

As he departed for the nation’s capital earlier in the day, Biden gave an emotional farewell to his home state of Delaware, his voice breaking at times as he thanked the state’s residents for believing in him and standing with him throughout his career.

“I’ll always be a proud son of the state of Delaware,” Biden said at the Delaware National Guard headquarters in New Castle County. “Excuse the emotion,” he said, tears streaming down his face, “but when I die, Delaware will be written on my heart and the hearts of all of us — all the Bidens. We love you all. You’ve been there for us in the good and the bad.” 

He gave a moving tribute to his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46, stating that he had hoped to see his son become president one day. “We should be introducing him as president,” he said. 

The President-elect also noted the historical arc of his career witnessing the civil rights struggle as well as signs of progress in the United States. He said he came home to Wilmington, Delaware, from law school after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated — inspired by the turmoil to become a public defender. In 2009, he made the journey to Washington with Barack Obama, who became the nation’s first Black president. And he is returning to Washington, DC, this week “to meet a Black woman of South Asian descent, to be sworn in as President and vice president of the United States. That’s America,” he said Tuesday. 

The nation’s continuing struggles for equality and racial justice also drew Biden into the 2020 presidential race. He has said he decided to seek the highest office after watching President Donald Trump’s dismissive handling of the deadly White supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, when he said there were “very fine people on both sides.”

(Picture: Market Watch)