EMANCIPATION.
It is Wednesday, January 20th, 2021.
The location is the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C.
The occasion is the 59th—inauguration of the—President of the United States of America.
The relevant participants are rightfully in place for the scripted drama to unfold.
There is an expectant hush. One could hear a pin drop, I suppose. Protocol and decorum are on full display.
What a difference two weeks make ?
On Wednesday, January 6th, a vastly different spectacle unfurled in the same location.
A pack of insurrectionists swarmed the steps, halls and places of governmental deliberations, rabid with the sole intent of disrupting the then occurring democratic process of certifying the nomination of the 46th—President of the United States.
As 22-year-old National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman declared:
“We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation,
Rather than share it.
Would destroy our country if it meant
Destroying democracy.
And this effort nearly succeeded”.
Astoundingly some 58 years ago, 2 miles away at the other end of the National Mall, Martin Luther King gave his historic “I Have A Dream” tour de force.
This Lincoln Memorial address championed the plight of Black and other marginalized people in that country and included the demand:
“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy”.
He was championing a revolt against the hegemonic principles associated with Domination, as described by Riane Eisler in her book ‘The Chalice and The Blade’.
In a real sense, King’s speech was the eloquent wail of a disenfranchised community. It was both a prayer and emotional manna for the many brutalized by those who wielded power. It was spiritual Oxygen to assist in carrying on despite the dire circumstances. It was a modern-day Moses exhorting his compatriots with his vision, his ‘Dream’ of the ‘Promised Land’.
The failed coup attempt precipitated the unshackling from the tenous attachment to autocracy entertained by many. Democracy prevailed. A peaceful transfer of power occurred.
And so on a historic day with its many ‘firsts’:
• The oldest President to be elected.
• The first female Vice-President.
• The first African-American and South Indian woman to be Vice-President,
• Amanda Gorman was the youngest Poet to perform at an inauguration and only the third in its history.
The hegemonic egg was broken. The cracks in the shell of Domination made way for the emergence of an empowered, energetic intelligence.
“This is the era of just redemption”, Gorman declared.
Extolling the principles of Partnerism as defined by Riane Eisler, Gorman further declares in her poem ‘The Hill We Climb’:
“We seek harm to no one and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true.
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried.
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious”.
The ‘Dream’ of Martin Luther King is being fulfilled, championed and articulated in 21st Century vocabulary by a young Black woman.
“To compose a country committed to all
Cultures, colours, characters,
And
Conditions of man”.
“And so we lift our gazes, not to what stands between us,
But what stands before us.
We closed the divide because we know,
To put our future first,
We must put our differences aside.
We lay our arms down,
So we can reach out our arms
To one another”.
January 2021 will reverberate in history for a series of epic events:
• January 6th Attempted coup-de-etat.
• January 13th 2nd Impreachment of the same President.
• January 15th Martin Luther King’s birthday.
• January 18th Martin Luther King holiday.
• January 20th Inauguration of the 46th—US President and first female Vice-President. Amanda Gorman’s ‘The Hill We Climb’.
Can you hear Martin Luther King’s exultation ?
“Free at last,
Free at last,
Thank God almighty,
I’m free at last”.
This is the chant of Emancipation.
WHAT IS YOUR CHANT OF EMANCIPATION ? SAY IT LOUD.
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