A Commemoration

Early this evening--the day prior to the inauguration--President-elect Joe Biden, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (accompanied by Dr. Jill Biden, and Douglas Emhoff, Ms. Harris's husband) visited the Lincoln Memorial.  

They were there to pay tribute to those who have died from Covid-19 during the past year.  Earlier in the day, the number of Covid-related deaths in the U.S. passed 400,000.  By late evening, more than 401,500 deaths would be recorded.

The commemoration--which took place in front of the Lincoln Memorial's Reflecting Pool--was brief, and very moving.  

Before Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris spoke, the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Wilton Gregory, delivered an invocation. 

President-elect Biden said, "To heal, we must remember.  It's hard sometimes to remember, but that's how we heal. It's important to do that as a nation. That's why we're here today."

In addition to the remarks by Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris, and Archbishop Gregory, Lori Marie Kay, a nurse from Michigan, sang "Amazing Grace."  The gospel singer Yolanda Adams sang Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

As Mr. Biden finished speaking, four hundred lights, behind him--at the lengthwise sides of the Reflecting Pool (each light representing one thousand of those who have died during the pandemic)--were illuminated. The sight--of the lights, of the reflections of the lights on the water, and the Washington Monument in the distance--was striking, and beautiful. 

I don't think there could have been a more meaningful preface to the beginning of the new administration. 

(Photograph by Evan Vucci/Associated Press)