Inauguration

2021-01-22T18:30:39Z

This week, mother_bones , cosmolinguist and I watched the Biden Inauguration on Twitch. It was the stream of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which is a hell of a mouthful, and the two Capitol tour guides narrating the stream kept fumbling over it which was hilarious. Still, they were knowledgeable about all the minutiae of the building which helped fill in the gaps until the ceremonies began.

I do appreciate structures and ceremony put around power, so I found it interesting to watch. I was touched by the quote from Ronald Reagan of inauguration being "commonplace and miraculous" - both because it has happened regularly for such a long time. Not even the forces attempting to destroy American democracy over the last four years could put a stop to it.

The artistic performances, particularly the poem from Amanda Gorman, were powerful and helped add to the gravity of the occasion rather than detract from it. The presence of so many women and people of colour (and women of colour!) was obviously calculated, but I'm glad somebody made that calculation.

Mostly I'm just glad they got through it without disaster or attempted murder, and that the world can start to breathe a little easier. The new Executive is not and will not be perfect, and they will be too slow or too unwilling to correct the injustices both caused by and predating the last one. But things could have been a lot worse in so many ways, and that's worth celebration before getting to work holding them to account.

comments

You Don't Live Like I Do

Inauguration