Watching soldiers between great speeches
People all around the world watched the inauguration of the new president of the United States of America.
Most of us, I expect, watched mainly Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We watched Biden take his oath of office with his hand on a family Bible.
Biden is only the second Roman Catholic president; the first was John F. Kennedy. That speaks volumes about the dominance of one branch of Christian religion in American politics.
We watched Kamala Harris’s radiant smile as she became, not just the first non-white woman to be vice-president, but the first woman. Period. That too speaks volumes about American politics.
We watched Lady Gaga sing the national anthem, without vocal pyrotechnics. We watched 22-year-old Amanda Gorman read a poem of aspiration and inspiration.
But I wonder how many of us watched the troops, occasionally visible in the background.
There were 25,000 of them. From all over the country. They stood guard over 25 miles of fences and 10 miles of concrete barriers, to keep public spaces anywhere near the inauguration bare and empty.
Donald Trump bragged that his inauguration was the greatest the nation had ever seen — even though photographs showed it was distinctly smaller than Barack Obama’s.
Joe Biden can claim the opposite — that his inauguration was the smallest ever. The Washington Mall was deserted. Instead of thousands of people, thousands of flags marked the thousands who had died of COVID-19.
The troops were there because of widespread fears of an insurrection. Fears that the unruly mobs stirred up by Trump might try to storm the inauguration ceremonies, might even attempt to assassinate the new president.
The troops’ body language suggested those fears were unfounded.
Despite their guns and camouflage, they were not on high alert. They stood around, chatting casually, shifting from one foot to the other, like adults at a playground watching the children perform on their swings and slides.
I contrast them with the British troops I witnessed in Northern Ireland, during that country’s “troubles.”
I rode with some patrols — the only person in an open vehicle not protected by a flak jacket or helmet. I felt like the bullseye on a target.
Periodically, the soldiers ordered me to crouch down; we were passing through known sniper territory.
In downtown Belfast, every intersection had a soldier on all four corners, prone, rifle steadied on a rest, aimed down the block. All day, every day. They weren’t armed with truncheons or shields, tear gas or rubber bullets. They shot to kill.
Soldiers marched back to back, one facing forward, the other facing backward, matching step for step. No soldier ever left his back undefended.
Shoppers were physically frisked before they got through a barrier gate. Checked by a metal detector. Purse or briefcase opened, searched.
The tension was constant. Everyone knew that the person beside you, behind you, before you, who looked just like you, might be a fanatic intent on murder and/or mayhem.
In an internal war, there is no such thing as a safe place.
In a pub, I sneezed. I tend to sneeze loudly and explosively. Two people dived for cover.
That’s what it’s like to live in a country divided against itself. It’s not about armies neatly lined up on opposite sides of a field in Appomattox. It’s about guerilla war, where everyone is a potential enemy.
The body language of the troops in Washington DC was clear. Regardless of the rhetoric fomented on Fox News or Facebook, they didn’t sense a war going on in America.
Maybe they’re right.There is no underground army hoping to resurrect the Civil War.
The mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 was a bunch of 40-year-old teenagers, on an adrenaline high, egged on by Trump’s money, ego and henchmen.
Dissent, yes. Dissatisfaction, yes. Anger, yes. Insurrection, no.
The U.S. may have a minority of white males, upset that their traditional dominance in American society is being eroded by women, immigrants and Americans with darker skin.
But it is nowhere near half and half pitted against each other.
“The forces that divide us are deep and they are real, but they are not new,” President Joe Biden told the nation.
“We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace,” said poet Amanda Gorman.
Both conveyed hope for the future. But the most hopeful sign may have been the relaxed body language of the troops occasionally visible in the background.