And here we are, just days from what was once a powerful symbol of democracy, of American strength - its peaceful inauguration of a new president - looking at rows and rows of uniformed troops, as with Lincoln so long ago, gathered to protect that sacred moment from armed disruption. In this year of 2021.
The elegant Madison Valley park itself, given its small scale and the number of tents now lining the perimeter, is now essentially off-limits to Seattle citizens.
This bizarre disruption did not stop the work of a joint Congress, gathered to approve the electoral college count, but it did strip away any illusions about our 45th president.
I bid good riddance to 2020 - if this democracy survives to January 20 and beyond, it will take an historic effort, a re-dedication by all of us day by day without rest, to restore what we have lost.
"What was is never over. There have been moments in our history, brief ones, where the meaning of the Civil War has seem settled. This isn't one of them,...
"What is on the ballot here is the character of this country. Decency, honor, respect, treating people with dignity, making that sure that everyone has an even chance. And I’m going to make sure you get that. You have not been getting it the last four years.”
I wish him recovery and good health, but cannot forgive the ugly way he has divided us, nor his failure to vigorously counter that virus, still sweeping across our country.
As a journalist I viewed, sometimes covered from the studio, presidential debates, but in those four decades never encountered such a humiliation of our democracy. I even felt a bit of sorrow for moderator Chris Wallace who was simply overrun by Donald Trump’s disregard for rules
We are, in this new country, this America, facing our own existential question -- can we, someone wrote today, save our dysfunctional Congress, where the aim is no longer governance in the public interest, but merely retention of power and privilege?
"I cannot see these works now, nor look south from a ferry crossing, without recalling the landscape-shaping power of a melting glacier – in the Vashon case a massive river of receding ice that gave us the islands and waters of the Sound. I see Julie’s striking works as marvelous catalysts calling attention to larger surroundings, to the colossal reach of time."