Thinking about the Biden/Harris Inaguration

It is the first Saturday after the Biden/Harris inauguration and I have thoughts.

For the first time in four years, I am not waking up wondering “what stupid crap has the president tweeted.” I feel hopeful for my country. I know that the administration in office is working to make the country better. The Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives, but there is a tie in the Senate with Vice President Harris as a tie-breaking vote for 50/50 splits. But the Democrats and Republicans have to work together to get anything passed since it takes a two-thirds majority to end a filibuster.

The Biden administration is starting at a great time of uncertainty in the same way the Obama administration started at a great time of economic uncertainty. But there is a plan to get some sense of normalcy by the summer. There is a plan in the works, and hopefully, the plan is passed by Congress.

As a woman and the wife of an Asian man and the mother of a biracial boy, I was crying when Vice President Harris was inaugurated. Kamala Harris is the most powerful woman in the US Government. She has gone through another glass ceiling in the Executive Branch. My son will grow up knowing that he can be anything he wants to be and can use this Vice President as an example.

I remember when I was in high school and I was sitting with two of my male friends in our AP US History Class, one of these men was black and one was mixed-race South Asian and white, and we were taking a guess over which one of us would be most likely to be president first. I do believe our 16-year-old minds would be blown. At that time the only example I had of a woman in the Executive Branch was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. And now, since those 16-year-old had that conversation, a Black man was president, and now a mixed-race Black and South Asian woman is Vice President. I don’t believe my son will limit himself, if he dreams of working in politics, the same way these 16-year-olds did.

So what does the Inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris mean to me, just one word. HOPE.