A Different Tone: A full grown adult was inaugurated yesterday as the 46^th President of the United States. Joe Biden hit the ground with a speech that was kind, reassuring, intelligent, and above all, absent anger.

  “So now on this hallowed ground where just a few days ago violence sought to shake the capital’s very foundation,” he said, “we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.”

  Biden thanked predecessors of both parties for their presence, including outgoing Vice President Mike Pence, who chose to attend when Donald Trump did not.

  The new President issued a call for something he’ll have a hard time getting in the destructive wake of Donald Trump – national unity. Biden said, “With unity we can do great things, important things. We can right wrongs. We can put people to work in good jobs. We can teach our children in safe schools. We can overcome the deadly virus. We can reward work and rebuild the middle class and make healthcare secure for all. We can deliver racial justice and we can make America once again, the leading force for good in the world.

  Gone was the flag-waving blind patriotism of Donald Trump, dismissive of the country’s flaws. Biden said, “We can see each other, not as adversaries, but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature, for without unity there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos.

  In a little dig at Trump, whose name he did not mention, Biden said, “Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war. And we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.”

  Biden said, “I’ll defend America and will give all, all of you keep everything I do in your service. Thinking not of power, but of possibilities. Not of personal interest, but the public good and together we shall write an American story of hope, not fear, of unity not division, of light not darkness. A story of decency and dignity, love and healing, greatness and goodness.” 

  What a relief. And we can all be thankful that it will be at least four years before we hear Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA” at a presidential appearance. 

A Star is Born: Lady Gaga, J-Lo, Garth Brooks – they all sang. But the star of the inauguration was the National Youth Poet, 23-year-old Amanda Gorman, bright, quirky, beautiful, and frighteningly smart.

  From her poem, “The Hill We Climb”;

“We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be a country that is bruised, but whole, benevolent, but bold, fierce, and free. We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation. Our blunders become their burdens. But one thing is certain, if we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.”

Writer’s Cramp: Biden immediately went to work signing a stack of executive orders reversing Trump policies and advancing his own. Among them;

-Requiring the wearing of masks on federal property by all federal employees.

-Appointing a Covid-19 response coordinator who reports to the President.

-Rejoining the Paris Climate Accords.

-Urging Congress to provide a path to citizenship for immigrants who arrived illegally as children.

-Extending federal moratorium on evictions.

-Establishing ethics rules for all who serve in his administration.

-Freezing all new regulations set by Trump put in motion by his predecessor to create time to evaluate them. 

Pandemic: Biden is going to work today with a 21-page plan to fight the coronavirus.

  Among the ambitions is to address the shortages of N95 surgical masks and isolation gowns, as well as swabs, reagents and pipettes used in testing. They’re going to have to ramp up production and delivery of vaccines.

  Success will rely heavily on passage of a $1.9 billion coronavirus aid bill. 

The Press Room: Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, a Washington veteran, went to work yesterday evening repairing the Trump administration’s relationship with the press, “the enemy of the people,” as Trump labelled them. 

  She couldn’t start by lying about the size of the inauguration crowd. There wasn’t one.

  Almost all press secretaries promise to tell the truth, but few have lied as frequently as Trump’s. Psaki said, “There will be times when we see things differently in this room. I mean, among all of us. That’s okay. That’s part of our democracy, and rebuilding trust with the American people will be central to our focus in the press office and in the White House every single day.”

Gone But Not Forgotten: As one wag said, the weather in Washington yesterday was “minus 45.”

  Donald Trump and his wife Melania said goodbye at Joint Base Andrews before the inaugural proceedings for Joe Biden. Trump delivered a brief unscripted speech in which he touted his accomplishments; cutting taxes, building the military, and the pre-pandemic economy.

  He didn’t mention his dismissal of the pandemic’s danger or of the rubble in which he left the pandemic economy. “We just got 75 million votes,” he said, without uttering the name of Joe Biden, who won 81.2 million and is now the President. 

  Trump refused to admit it’s over for him. He promised, “We will be back in some form.”

  The Trumps then boarded Air Force One, which took off synchronized with the last few bars of Frank Sinatra singing “My Way.” Donald Trump left Washington with all the class he had when he arrived.

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