His first stop after arriving in Washington on the eve of his inauguration was to attend a twilight ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to mourn the dead. In one of his many symbolic breaks with his predecessor, Biden has not shied away from offering remembrances for the lives lost to the virus. That’s more lives lost to this virus than any other nation on Earth.” The pandemic has since swept across the world and the U.S., stressing the nation’s health care system, rattling its economy and rewriting the rules of everyday society.īiden unblinkingly recited the staggering statistics, noting that more Americans have died in one year in the pandemic “than in World War One or Two and the Vietnam War combined. The milestone comes just over a year after the first confirmed U.S. Five hundred brilliantly lit candles - each standing for 1,000 people lost - illuminated the stairways on either side of them as the Marine Band played a mournful rendition of “Amazing Grace.” Black bunting draped the doorway they walked through. Monday’s bleak threshold of 500,000 deaths was playing out against contradictory crosscurrents: an encouraging drop in coronavirus cases and worries about the spread of more contagious variants.īiden’s management of the pandemic will surely define at least the first year of his presidency, and his response has showcased the inherent tension between preparing the nation for dark weeks ahead while also offering optimism about pushing out vaccines that could, eventually, bring this American tragedy to a close.Īfter he spoke, the president along with first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff stood outside the White House for a moment of silence at sundown. The president ordered flags on federal property lowered to half staff for five days and then led the moment of communal mourning for those lost to a virus that often prevents people from gathering to remember their loved ones. But, equally important, to care for the living.” We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur or, on the news. He said, “We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. And as we do, we’ll remember each person we’ve lost, the lives they lived, the loved ones they left behind.” READ MORE: Why we need COVID memorials now - and for the future “We ask you to join us, to remember so we can heal, to find purpose in the work ahead, to show that there is light in the darkness,” he said. The president, who lost his first wife and baby daughter in a car collision and later an adult son to brain cancer, leavened the grief with a message of hope. That black hole in your chest, you feel like you’re being sucked into it.” “I know what it’s like when you are there, holding their hands, as they look in your eye and they slip away. I know what it’s like to not be there when it happens,” said Biden, who has long addressed grief more powerfully than perhaps any other American public figure. “Just like that,” he added, “so many of them took their last breath alone.”Ī president whose own life has been marked by family tragedy, Biden spoke in deeply personal terms, referencing his own losses as he tried to comfort the huge number of Americans whose lives have been forever changed by the pandemic. There’s no such thing,” he said Monday evening. “We often hear people described as ordinary Americans. WASHINGTON (AP) - With sunset remarks and a national moment of silence, President Joe Biden on Monday confronted head-on the country’s once-unimaginable loss - half a million Americans in the COVID-19 pandemic - as he tried to strike a balance between mourning and hope.Īddressing the “grim, heartbreaking milestone” directly and publicly, Biden stepped to a lectern in the White House Cross Hall, unhooked his face mask and delivered an emotion-filled eulogy for 500,071 Americans he said he felt he knew.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |