Early Wednesday, as the sun was shining through the open window, I received a short text from my long-time American-born friend writing from his cool New York apartment, “Today is not a holiday. I took the day off. ”
Separate countries, but united by technology, continuous sisterhood and a strong sense of right and wrong, we also understood, with our old Guyanese school and our formative years, the significance of January 20, 2021.
We breathed a deep sigh of relief like most of the viewing world, that the 45th polarization had finally disappeared, thankful that the 46th President of the United States of America, and the first female Vice President with her smile huge, sworn safe. at the Capitol, without a frightening event, just two weeks after the horrific storm of the famous fortress of power.
It was that kind of day, when America once again tried to redeem itself. A day that was supposed to become a symbolic landmark for democracy and for women, when millions, far and wide, took time out to share in the historic inauguration of sombre President Joseph Robinette Biden that left us far more hopeful for the future than at the end of the first week of this year.
We became most emotionally understandable, while watching new Vice President Kamala Devi Harris literally climb the stairs of the White House, at the arm of her Jewish husband, and a little closer to the upper seat of executive power, but the second still management, asking ourselves when someone as racially diverse and with as diverse a family as he is, will reach a Presidential position in our Guyana that is still polarized with his heavily male-dominated politics.
With this latest addition, in trademark sorority pearls and impartial purples, is another of the colors chosen for the early suffragettes, Ms. Harris, 56, still walks across the defining stage of history, becoming the first Black, first South Asian and the first Vice President of West India. With a crucial heart-breaking vote in an evenly divided Parliament, she represents the compelling continuation of an inspiring American story that personifies the country’s best, as the brilliant, abominable, ambitious daughter of two immigrants, a Jamaican father, Donald Harris and Indian. mother, Shyamala Gopalan who fell in love at the University of California, Berkeley. They later divorced.
In her memoir, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey” released two years ago, as she prepared to seek the highest American office, Harris for her parents’ courageous activism. They “often brought me in a stroller with them to civil rights marches… I have young memories of a sea of legs floating around, of the energy, the shouting and the chants. Social justice was an important part of family discussions. ”She recalled hearing Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to host a national campaign for President, speak in 1971 at the Berkeley cultural center she attended as a woman.
“My mother was barely five feet one, but I felt like she was six feet two,” the Senator wrote at the time, emphasizing that “Mum” had only two goals in life, raising her two women and ending breast cancer. “She pushed us hard and with high expectations as she nurtured us. And all the while, it made Maya (her younger sister, lawyer, and public policy advocate) and I feel special, so that if we put the work in, we could do anything we wanted to. ”
Last year, she recalled, “My mother was very intentional about bringing up my sister, Maya, and myself as strong Black women. He coupled his teachings of civic duty and fearlessness with actions, which included taking us Thursday night to Rainbow Sign, a Black cultural center near our home. There we were always greeted with a warm hug and open to extraordinary people like Shirley Chisholm, Nina Simone, and Maya Angelou who helped show us what we could become. This #BlackHistoryMonth, I want to raise my mom and the community at Rainbow Sign who taught us anything that was possible, unhindered by what has been. “
Earlier, Ms. emphasized. Harris, “My sister Maya and I were raised by a strong mother. My mother taught us the importance of a good education. He taught us the good old-fashioned value of hard work. She taught us not to let anyone tell you who you are. You tell them who you are. She learned not only to dream, but to do. He taught us to believe in our power to put right what is wrong. And she was the kind of parent, if you came home complaining about something, she’d say ‘Well what are you doing about it?’ So I decided to run for President of the United States. ”
He related, “When I travel our country, I see that optimism in the eyes of five and seven and ten year olds who feel a sense of purpose in being involved in the struggle. I see it, and feel it, in the energy of the people I meet. Yes, people are shouting. But they do it from an optimistic place. That’s why they have their babies with them. That’s why my parents took me in a stroller to civil rights marches. Because as overwhelming as the circumstances may be, they believe, as I do, that a better future is possible for us all. “
During an appearance on “Good Morning America” following the November election, interviewer Robin Roberts asked Ms Harris what she would go through as she made history once again, “I’ll think of my mother,” he replied. “But I feel a great sense of responsibility… that I will be the first, but not the last. I was brought up by a mother who always said that to me: ‘Kamala, well, you may be the first to do many things – make sure you are not the last.’ ”
Last Wednesday, too, some might have cried not because of the proximity of the Capitol and all that it represents nearly falling into extremism, hatred and lies, but because we listened to the powerful speech of the elder Chief Executive , 78 and hear. his echoes and warnings. President Biden could have been talking to us given the austerity of last year’s Guyana elections, when he declared, “Today, we are celebrating a victory not a candidate, but a cause, the cause of democracy. The will of the people has been heard and the will of the people has been addressed. We have learned again that democracy is valuable. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy is defeated. ”
We had to be moved, as was the intense performance of the youngest opening poet, Amanda Gorman, just 22, who delivered “The Hill We Climb,” which finished after the riot at the Capitol. “Where a thin black woman / descended from a slave and brought up by a single mother / can dream of becoming president / only to find herself reporting one”
“When the day comes, we step out of the shadow of a flame and the unforgivable / New dawn balloons as we release it / Because there’s always light, if only we are brave enough” w / If only we are brave enough to do it… ”
It was that kind of day.
ID enjoys the Vice President’s recollection: “I had just entered the race for California attorney general and asked me how it was going. ‘Mum, these guys say they’re going to kick my ass,’ I told her. He rolled over and looked at me and unveiled the biggest smile. She knew who she had raised. She knew her fighting spirit was alive and well inside me. ”