banana republic

What a day! A roller-coaster, from the Georgia run-off to Congress count on electoral college vote (or objection to electoral) to the Capital Hill riot...we're definitely living the history, living it one day at time (more like one minute at a time). Yet, it is quite a draining experience, sometimes I do wish we could take a breather literally (between the politics and the covid). 

Watching the footage, images and twitter of what has happened today in the Capitol Hill, couldn't help feeling the irony with what I have been reading...

...As beautiful as they are, they don't always match the lived experience. In fact, my favourite photograph from that night isn't of Grant Park at all. Rather it's one I received many years later as a gift, a photography of Lincoln Memorial, taken as I was giving my speech in Chicago. It shows a small gathering of people on the stairs, their faces obscured by the darkness, and behind them the giant figure shining brightly, his marble face craggy, his eyes slightly downcast. They're listening to the radio. I am told, quietly contemplating who we are as a people -- and the arc of this thing we call democracy.