Column
Amanda Gorman Was the Light of the Inauguration
I felt numb at first, but the wisdom of someone 20 years my junior finally brought me to tears
As Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, I waited for the wave of relief to come over me. Friends were posting on Twitter and Instagram about how they hadn’t stopped crying since the morning, and how they felt hope for the first time in four years. I was desperate to feel the same.
The truth, though, was that I felt numb. Call it a defense mechanism or a trauma response to the violence and injustice of the Trump administration, call it the dull exhaustion of dealing with a deadly pandemic over this last year. But whatever the case — as the inauguration ceremony began, I felt no weight suddenly lifted, no sudden surge of optimism.
Even the joy at seeing Kamala Harris become the first woman and person of color to be vice president — an objectively incredible moment for America and feminism — was tamped down by a feeling of looming dread.
Because despite the hope of a new administration and a reprieve from the last four years of hate and ineptitude, right-wing extremism and violence did not magically disappear once Donald Trump took a plane to Mar-a-Lago. Trump brought…
