Today Biden and Harris held a ceremony to commemorate those we’ve lost from Covid.
“To heal, we must remember. It’s hard sometimes to remember. But that’s how we heal. It’s important to do that as a nation. That’s why we’re here today.” — Joe Biden
 
I keep finding myself taken aback by how much he seems to be meeting the moment when he speaks. It’s not that he’s saying things with a “presidential tone”or showing basic empathy. It’s that, so far, he sounds as though he may be alluding to the reckoning to come.
 
“It’s hard sometimes to remember. But that’s how we heal.” Is a perfect way to address the pain and loss of this moment.
It’s also a perfect way to invoke the need for accountability.
 
We don’t enable abusers with a collective refusal to address past crimes.
We don’t dignify appeals for “civility” with polite and complicit silence.
We don’t prioritize the comfort of the already comfortable at the expense of the devastated.
 
We remember and we act accordingly. Because…
“It’s hard sometimes to remember. But that’s how we heal.”
 
I’m encouraged by what I’m hearing and by what I hope I’m hearing but I will be vigilant for proof.
 
We are never supposed to take a president at their word. We’re not supposed to insist on seeing meaning where there may be none.
 
We know what it looks like for citizens to insist on seeing valor where there is malice, or action where there is apathy, or values where there is nihilism.
 
So, be encouraged. Be vigilant. And insist on a remembrance of this era that prevents it’s replication.