Celebration

On January 20, 2021, America will inaugurate a new President.  On that day, Joe Biden will take the oath of office.  As a rule, the inauguration of a new president is cause for massive celebrations.  Normally, there is a large parade featuring marching bands, floats, the President and First Lady in a convertible waving to the crowd of spectators, or walking side-by-side on the way to the White House.  There is also the inauguration ceremony itself with close to 1600 people in the viewing stand and hundreds of thousands along the edges of the reflecting pool.  Finally, in the evening of January 20, 2021, in normal times there would be the inauguration balls, multiple celebratory events attended by party faithfuls, lobbyists, and campaign donors.  But, January 20, 2021 will not be a normal time.  At the time this is being written America is experiencing more than 10 million Americans who have been infected by the coronavirus and more than 239,000 who have died. Those numbers are expected to climb substantially amid fears of an even deadlier second wave hitting the U.S. and by the time the calendar turns to January 20, 2021, the numbers of infected are expected to grow by hundreds of thousands and deaths increase by another fifty to one hundred thousand.  Statistics like this are never cause for celebration even with a new president.  Any gathering of crowds of people will result in further spread of the virus and the inaugural balls could all become super-spreader events.  While many will want to celebrate the new president or the end of the old president’s term in office this is neither the time nor the way to honor this event.  Perhaps dedicating the inauguration to the memory of the victims of Covid-19 would be appropriate.  Rather than parades and gathering to listen to speeches honor could be directed to the doctors, nurses, other hospital workers, and first responders, all of whom had to face the threat of infection of Covid-19 every day they reported to work since the virus first struck America’s shores some 11 months before the inauguration of the new president.  Instead of the government spending untold sums of money and donors being asked to contribute millions to pay for all of the typical inaugural expenses these funds could be diverted to help the millions who lost jobs and healthcare insurance because of the disease.  The term of the new President will last but four years =, eight years at the most, but the loss of loved ones as well as loss of the ability to feed, clothe, and house one’s family will remain with anyone who had to deal with these tragedies for the rest of their lives.  So, considering everything that has happened in the eleven months prior to January 20,2021, one must question whether, in fact, there is really anything that calls for celebration.