INAUGURATION SPECIAL: Amanda Gorman, Lady Gaga & Joe Biden

Words Matter

Riley Fessler

News, Government

4.6 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week, after 4 long, divisive and tragic years, we witnessed the continuation of a 244-year-old American tradition. It was not a peaceful transfer of power. As incoming White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klain correctly noted, “there was nothing inevitable about this day.” nulltheless - last Wednesday we watched a quadrennial ceremony that Ronald Reagan once called both “commonplace and miraculous” - commonplace because it has happened every 4 years for the 244 - and miraculous because it has happened every 4 years for the last 244. It was, as John F Kennedy said exactly 60 years earlier- “not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom.” It is a ritual that in the past many of us had taken for granted. Not this year - if the last 4 years have taught us anything it is that words truly do have power and they have consequences. Not since Abraham Lincoln, had a new president given an inaugural address to a more divided nation while under the real threat of armed conflict. And Joe Biden rose to the occasion. Let us never forget how close we came to last week NOT happening and as Lincoln said at Gettysburg – rededicate ourselves to a new birth of freedom – where truth, facts and power of words are given their proper place. #WordsMatter Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Words Matter with Katie Barlow.
0:12.0	Welcome to Words Matter, I'm Katie Barlow.
0:15.0	Our goal is to promote objective reality.
0:18.0	As a wise man once said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, not their own facts.
0:24.0	Words have power and words have consequences.
0:33.0	Last week, after four long, divisive and tragic years, we witnessed the continuation of 244-year-old American tradition.
0:44.0	It was not a peaceful transfer of power.
0:48.0	As incoming White House chief of staff Ron Cling correctly noted, there was nothing inevitable about this day.
0:57.0	Nonetheless, last Wednesday, we watched a quadrennial ceremony that Ronald Reagan once called, both commonplace and miraculous.
1:08.0	Commonplace, because it has happened every four years for the last 244-year-old American tradition, and miraculous because it has happened every four years for the last 244-year-old American tradition.
1:21.0	It was, as John F. Kennedy said exactly 60 years earlier, not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom.
1:31.0	It is original that in the past, many of us had taken for granted, not this year.
1:37.0	If the last four years have taught us anything, it is that words truly do have power, and they have consequences.
1:45.0	This week, we begin with the powerful and stirring words of America's youth, poet laureate Amanda Gorman.
1:54.0	Mr. President, Dr. Biden, Madam Vice President, Mr. M. Hoth, Americans, and the world.
2:06.0	When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
2:14.0	The loss we carry a sea we must wait, we've braved the belly of the beast, we've learned that quiet isn't always peace, in the norms and notions of what just is, isn't always just is.
2:32.0	And yet, the dawn is ours before, we knew it somehow, we knew it somehow, we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken.
2:45.0	But simply unfinished, we, the successors of a country and a time were a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother, can dream of becoming president.
3:00.0	Only to find herself reciting for one.
3:04.0	And yes, we are far from polished, far from pastime, but that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.
3:14.0	We are striving to forge or union with purpose to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.
	...

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