I watched the inauguration yesterday on Youtube. I loved it. I even loved Beyonce, who, frankly, ordinarily does nothing for me. The choir made me cry. (In a good way.) After so much contention and struggle, it was absolutely blissful to see a ceremony that hit on nearly every issue I really care about.
We have spent months and years arguing over “political questions” that seem to me to be survival questions, with obvious, necessary answers. We will continue to do so, of course. Even if every one accepted the big picture, fixing the individual details would remain. Nonetheless, I was absolutely delighted to hear the president specifically, deliberately address climate change. And, according to the New York Times, spend more sentences on it than anything else. (eight, apparently.) Perhaps this begins to make up for his silence regarding the topic on the campaign trail.
Congress remains, and fossil fuels remain (for now), and people’s jobs and lives are still wrapped around the way we’ve always done things. Listening to that speech yesterday allowed a spark of hope to kindle, however. Perhaps in the next few years people will begin to really invest in sustainability, and in survival.