I work in Hartford two days a week. For those familiar with the city, I get off I-84E at the Capitol Avenue exit and then wind my way past the Capitol building and by the Courthouse before heading toward Hartford Hospital. I drove in on Monday, January 18th, and was absolutely shocked to see the Capitol building cordoned off, and tanks parked on its front lawn. Uniformed National Guardsmen with AK-47s lined my passage. It felt so surreal, like I was in a war-zone. They were still there when I left work around 5pm, if anything they had increased in number. My next scheduled day in was Wednesday, Inauguration Day. I hate to admit it, but I called in sick. I didn’t want to drive by the tanks again, and I most certainly didn’t want to be in the city if there was a violent right-wing protest. Thankfully, protestors / insurrectionists stayed away.
I watched the inauguration from the safety of my home, praying that there wasn’t a sniper planning to take out Joe Biden. By the time he finished his speech, I breathed a sigh of relief. But as I looked at the photos snapped that day, I realized how sad the last year has been. We are in the middle of a global pandemic. A nationalist movement based on conspiracy theories promoted by the outgoing president got so violent that it led to a failed coup attempt. Hundreds of Thousands are out of work. The rich are left to profit from the spoils while the poor starve. Right now – 2021 – is not a good time to be an American.
We are now five days past the inauguration. I think it’s finally sinking in now that Joe Biden is President. Capitol insurrectionists are being brought to justice every day. COVID vaccine distribution is moving forward (I got my second shot and my mom got her first on Friday). My friends who have had their rights stripped away by the last president now have someone in their corner. But there’s still so much work to be done!
I don’t see the political divide easing anytime soon, especially with insurrectionists and conspiracy theorists holding public office, but there’s a little hope now that maybe the government will start to work for the people again. To be honest, it feels like we’ve been through a war. We’ve lost 400,000 of our brothers and sisters. Thousands more are dying every day, while at least a third of the country doesn’t believe they common sense measures will halt the death toll. Sometimes it feels as if their deaths were in vain – casualties of war. But maybe, with science in charge again, we won’t have to lose 400,000 more.
It’s those little snippets of hope that I’m clinging too. Sadly, I know we won’t get back the America I grew up with, or even the America I knew four years ago, but I hope that the America we do get back after the dust clears will be forever changed for the good.
The Connecticut Writers' Circle 