Making America grateful again
I don’t know about you, but of the many emotions swirling around inside of me just now, the one that asserts itself most prominently is gratitude. I’m grateful to Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. and Kamala Devi Harris for rescuing my country. I’m grateful for the sanity they will restore, the dignity they will bring and the compassion they will reinstate to the land of my birth, a land that used to be known for such things.
I’m grateful that soon there will be no more hate tweets, no more rage tweets, no more life-endangering insult tweets coming out of our nation’s capital. I’m grateful that global warming will be taken seriously again. I’m grateful that black lives will matter again. I’m grateful that the pandemic will be taken seriously.
I’m grateful that soon there will be a President of the United States who won’t try to pit families against families, races against races and Americans against Americans. I’m grateful that I can go to sleep at night secure again in the knowledge that the President of the United States won’t start a nuclear war because some official in some country said something about him that he didn’t like.
I’m grateful that the new president of the United States won’t care if you live in a red state or a blue state. He will only care that you’re an American, and he will never lose sight of the fact that his job is to serve you, whether you voted for him or not.
I’m grateful that the President of the United States isn’t a self-dealer. He didn’t take the job to enrich himself, he took the job to serve the best interests of the American people. I’m grateful that when he swears to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, he will truly mean it.
I’m grateful that a man who hates women will be replaced with a man who thinks enough of women to select a woman for his Vice President, and a woman of color. And not just any woman, but the best person for the job.
I’m grateful that I, who lives in a foreign land, will never again have to apologize for the president of the United States again. I’m grateful that the president won’t be a braggart, that he won’t be an insecure, whiny, uncouth, inarticulate fool.
I’m grateful that Joe Biden will be President of the United States. I’m grateful that he will restore sanity, normality and humility to the job. I’m grateful that he will have Kamala Harris to round out a team that will lead America into the future, and together they will meet the considerable challenges the future will bring.
I’m grateful that after 12pm eastern time on January twentieth, 2021, whole days will pass where I will have absolutely nothing to write about. And above all, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, I’m grateful for you. It has been a privilege to serve with you. Stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.