President Joseph Biden’s speech at the inauguration was a call to unity, given that the country faces unique and difficult challenges: an epidemic that strikes every hundred years, democracy at risk, and an economy that must be rebuilt because so many people are currently suffering from disease, material deprivation, and unemployment.
“We must reject a culture in which facts are manipulated and even falsified,” Biden said. “Recent weeks and months have taught us one thing: There is truth and there are lies. Lies are told for the sake of power and profit. Each of us has a duty and responsibility – as citizens and Americans, and especially as leaders committed to respecting the constitution and protecting the nation – to defend the truth and defeat the lies.”
President Biden pointed to all these challenges, including the events that took place two weeks ago in Congress, saying that democracy had triumphed and that the secret of success lies in unity, “Together we can do great things.”
Biden indicated that politics should not be defined by anger, telling those who did not vote for him that they had the right to disagree, peacefully and without destroying much-needed unity. “We need each other,” the new CEO said.
Addressing the international community, Joe Biden said that the United States will participate again and contribute to its alliances, and will re-engage at the global level to meet the challenges of today, not the past.
Referring to American democracy, Biden said it is a nation that has not shrunk, but an incomplete project, in which contributions from leaders and residents are always needed.
Referring to Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden said she was the first African American, with part of her family from Southeast Asia, to be a living symbol of hope and progress.
All in all, an amazing opening ceremony, but it also reminds us of the moment of solemnity and gravity we’re experiencing. The Biden administration will now have to start working immediately because it has so many immediate crises to resolve, and the first priority is to end the epidemic and get the country and the world back to normal life. The celebration itself marks the beginning of this much-needed normality.
