A Profile in Courage

Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as President of our nation on March 4, 1861.

With the dark cloud of civil war hanging ominously over our Union, the incoming President ended his inaugural message with these hopeful words:

 

   “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained— it must not break— our bonds of affection.

 The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone—all over this broad land—will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

 

But those better angels did not prevail until four year later. His call for peace did not work out as he had hoped, until  we escaped the deathly embrace of a bitter civil war.

Now, 160 years later, we again find our United States on the verge of being torn between two zealously ideological factions. A fierce heat of  trumpish  enmity was intensified two weeks ago when sore-loser rioteers attempted to undermine the Constitutional procedures by which we pass the torch of leadership from one administration to another. 

But, in spite of that malevolence . . . we—in accordance with the hymnic anthem of our erstwhile 20th-century Civil Rights crusade—we have  overcome those sore losers’ subversive attempt to obstruct a lawful transference of Executive authority.

Two weeks ago,  as the Electoral process was  unfolding in Congress. . . a courageous Vice President wielded the gavel of authority in the US Senate; he stood at the very pivot point of that Electoral encounter. 

Mike Pence’s self-disciplined courage assured the integrity of our transition, even in the midst of a riotous assault on the US Capitol.

 In defending our imperiled  lawful transfer, Mike carried the  the torch of other courageous Americans whose bold service is long remembered in the mystic chords of American memory.

“Profiles in Courage” is the title by which President Kennedy, in his book, commemorated the brave souls whose valor has, through the decades, assured the integrity of our fragile Republic.

Here’s another Profile--a poetic rendition-- for Kennedy’s Hall of Courage. It is found in my versified saga of Mike and Joe:

’T’was just a simple twist of irony

in this, our passing Presidential authority:

Our Veep who in ’16 election wielded gavel in the Senate

has now the Oval prize, as he did win it.

 

So now Ole Joe accepts the Vote of victory

as our 2020  he has won for all to see.

Yes, he who last time swung that Veepy gavel

will now to  Oval Office travel.

 

But now VP Mike wielded that Veepy gavel,

as our nation strove ‘tween Presidents to unravel.

When in the Senate, Electoral votes were counted,

Did Mike's gavel seal decision honestly accounted?

 

He did wield our gavel to do the right thing;

Mike declined to abet the tRrumpian uprising.

’T’was just a simple twist of fate we did see

As Mike gaveled in  Joe’s Presidency.

Glass half-Full