November 9, 2020
Exactly four years after Donald Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton, the story changes: the Biden-Harris era begins. With the promise of a more welcoming America and that it will return to give possibilities
For over 75 million people, the day Joe Biden became president of The United States was a four-year long-awaited moment. Exactly from the night of Tuesday, November 8, 2016, when Donald J. Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House, thus becoming the 45th president of the United States.
From Trump to Biden
That cold and wet night, to the tune of the Air Force One soundtrack (a 1997 film in which Harrison Ford is a heroic president of the United States), the newly elected Republican President took the stage set up in the Hilton Midtown hotel ballroom. and he promised the entire Trump family, its constituents, and the whole world: “I will be the president of all Americans. The forgotten of this country will no longer be forgotten ».
A few minutes earlier, three kilometers further west, on the big screens of the Javits Center, where the Democrats were headquartered (the same one that was used as a field hospital during the Covid-19 emergency), even the outgoing president Barack Obama was speaking to the thousands of New Yorkers who thronged the convention center and millions of other spectators. He too was making a promise, and he was asking his people for a commitment. That of continuing to give our best by working alongside our opponents to achieve, together, the good of all Americans. “It doesn't matter who wins or loses today,” Obama said on November 8, 2016. “What matters is that democracy and the common good win. It is the choices that each of us will make from now on, the ones that matter. One thing is certain: the sun always rises in the morning. And America will always be the largest country in the world ».
Thousands of people of all ages, races, creeds, nationalities, gender identities, who since yesterday have poured into the squares and streets of New York (and many other cities, in America and in the world) to replace the memory November 8, 2016 (and everything that followed) that of November 8, 2020, the Day One of the era Joe Biden / Kamala Harris.
We want "a great America, again, for everyone"
“We have kept faith with that democracy pact made with Barack Obama then, and with Joe and Kamala now. And I'm not just talking about the over 75 million voters, but those who have no voice because they didn't write “Americano” in their passport, despite having “AmeriHuman” encoded in their DNA ». Valeria Orani, Sardinian curator and producer, Roman by adoption and New Yorker for love (the one for Italian theater and culture), remembers the difficult choices she had to make in the last four years. The scenes of violence, racism, abuses, and injustices that she never wanted to be a spectator of. The doubts, the fear of not making it, the desire to go home.
“But it's the final result that matters. And the result is the hundreds of thousands of people who for over 24 hours have gathered peacefully in the streets and squares of New York (and many other American and world capitals), to celebrate the new president of the United States, Joe Biden and his deputy, Kamala Harris to renew faith in a better America, who shows the world that "doing the right thing" is possible, and is the only right thing to do to fight the most dangerous virus of all, that of 'intolerance".
With Valeria, under the statue of Garibaldi who watches over the thousand (almost 1500) gathered here in Washington Square park, there is also Tiziana Marcuccio, a Milanese communication professional, who in January 2017, in the first months of the Trump presidency made the big leap and moved to New York. «Today, finally, the emotional smog made of anger, fueled by a national policy of hatred and division based exclusively on the arrogance of the strongest and richest has dissipated. The political spring has blossomed, ”he says. “Now I expect an America that makes progress in protecting public health and the environment. May it once again become an example of welcome and possibility. Because this is what Joe and Kamala promised, that by working together we can do it. That armed with compassion and openness to the other we can make great not only America but the world, and give a better future to the whole of humanity ”.
Even Laura Campisi, a young and talented jazz singer from Palermo arrived in New York during the first term of Obama, spent in apnea these last four years. «I love this country, I love democracy and social justice. Discovering the existence of a racist, violent, fascist America was hard. I feared for the lives of minorities of all colors, for the survival of the civic sense of this great country, for national and personal security, of Joe, the American I love and who I married just a year ago, and of Eddy, our little dog. Today I am not afraid, I believe in America, in Joe Biden, in Kamala Harris, and in those who, like them, are committed to democracy. Together we can make America Great. Again. For everyone".
