A new era has begun. Wednesday, Joseph R. Biden Jr. was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States of America, and the ceremony hopefully set the tone for the next four years.
First, the visuals: Everyone wearing masks, chairs set six feet apart and a designated sanitizer who wiped down the podium between speakers. Instead of a sea of onlookers crowding the National Mall, there were hundreds of thousands of flags representing all 50 states and the U.S. territories; though COVID made it unsafe for Americans to gather for the occasion, their contribution to the nation — and to the systems of democracy — were symbolically recognized. All of these subtle but powerful signs that this administration takes the COVID-19 pandemic seriously.
Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle who joined the Bidens for Mass at St. Matthew’s Church prior to the ceremony at the Capitol and past presidents from both parties greeted with honor and respect as they took their seats on the presidential platform. President Biden has sworn to work across the party line and he put his money where his mouth is; 40 of the lawmakers who challenged the legitimacy of his election were invited to attend the inauguration, and even Sen. Cruz had a front-row seat.
In a break with tradition, President Biden and Dr. Biden and Vice President Harris and Mr. Emhoff ascended the Capitol’s east stairs, lined with Capitol Police officers in their dress uniforms. They symbolically reclaimed the steps overrun by the mob that breached the Capitol Jan. 6, while honoring the officers who did their best to defend the seat of democracy. When it was time for Vice President Harris to descend to the presidential platform, where she took her oath of office, Officer Eugene Goodman escorted her. Goodman, the officer who led rioters away from the Senate chamber as they chased him up an interior staircase, has been promoted to acting deputy Senate sergeant-at-arms.
And then there were the words. Words of unity and hope and healing. Promises of change and rectifying past wrongs. In multiple speeches, the words of the pledge allegiance surfaced: One nation, under God, indivisible. And that was the overarching theme of Biden’s inaugural address: “To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy. Unity. … I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days. I know the forces that divide us are deep, and they are real, but I also know they are not new.”
Do not, however, mistake his words as a signal America will return to the “normal” of ignoring the national wounds that have festered for centuries. The Biden administration has already announced its commitment to addressing racial inequities, climate change and political extremism. As one network commentator noted, Biden is the first president to identify white supremacy as a national threat in his inaugural address.
In his calls for unity, Biden made this remark: “… the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us.” It’s a reminder that a nation is more than a president or a congress or a coalition of states. A nation is the sum of all its parts — of all its inhabitants. If we want a better future, it will take all of us to make one.
