‘A city upon a hill, that we must continue to climb’
If America can encourage young leaders like Amanda Gorman, its future is bright
Since 1933, every four years on Jan. 20, the United States has bore witness to a monumental event, an inauguration that oversees the peaceful transition of power from one duly elected president to the next. This most recent inauguration was no different, and yet it felt noticeably different.
In part because that transition of power took place without pomp and circumstance, during the height of a global pandemic that has seen financial hardships, illnesses and deaths, and two weeks after Capitol Hill found itself under siege by Americans themselves. In spite of those circumstances, the hope and optimism that should accompany every inauguration endured, as did the possibilities that are only possible in countries like America. Those possibilities were evident in the inauguration of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., a man who upon birth never fit the mould of who a president should be. The son of Irish working-class parents, struggling with a speech impediment throughout his life, and only the second Roman Catholic president in American history.
To evoke the words of president Ronald Reagan, for many of us, this week’s inauguration symbolized “a new day .... a new dawn in America.” During these past four years, countless Americans felt undermined, ignored and threatened by an administration that showed little understanding of their needs, and at times outright hostility toward their existence. When faced with the anger and hatred that unexpectedly and suddenly flooded their lives daily, they found hope and optimism to be fleeting.
In the process, they became indifferent, apathetic and exhausted by the persistence of partisan politics and the existence of a president who put his own needs before those of the people he served. But what these years taught us, is that we cannot take this enduring experiment in democracy for granted. That indifference and apathy are not the answer. And that we should be appreciative of this new day, this new dawn that we are about to enter.
President Biden — an empathetic, experienced, calm and competent individual — will lead with the humility and grace necessary during these challenging times. He will be a leader for all Americans, and according to him, Americans shall write a “story of hope, not fear, of unity, not division, of light, not darkness. A story of decency and dignity, love and healing, greatness and goodness.”
In 1630, John Winthrop wrote his own enduring story, when he told his fellow Puritans that this new land they had settled would act as a “City Upon a Hill,” where “the eyes of all people are upon us,” a sentiment that Reagan frequently evoked in his admiration for his nation. On Jan. 20, with the world watching, the possibilities of America were put on public display and the seemingly impossible happened.
Kamala Harris, a woman born to an Indian mother and Jamaican father, and who upon birth seemingly never fit the mould of who a vicepresident should be, or what one should look like, was sworn into that role. America has never been a perfect nation, it has mainly been an imperfect one, but if anyone strives to question its ideals, intentions and integrity, remember that Americans can finally say they have a madam vice-president. And little girls and women, regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation or ability, can more closely aspire to achieve their own dreams.
As a woman of colour ascended to the second highest office in the land, a star emerged. Amanda Gorman, in her own words, “a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother” became, at the age of 23, the youngest poet to speak at an inauguration, and before the world. She completed “The Hill We Climb” while those Capitol protests took place, an indication that out of dissent and disunity, inspiration and dreams can be born.
Gorman’s moving rhetoric, eloquent execution (in spite of her own speech impediment), and hand gestures that appeared to act out her beautiful words, resembled those of Martin Luther King, Jr., Maya Angelou and Barack Obama. If America will have leaders like her in its future, then America’s future is bright. In Gorman’s words, America is “far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colours, characters, and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.”
There is so much potential that stands before America. As Winthrop noted, it is indeed a “City upon a Hill,” and as Gorman articulated nearly 400 years later, there is still much hill left to climb to become that shining city, if Americans only dare to do so.