Good Morning! Here’s the Monday Morning Blog!
We remember what Martin Luther King, Jr. did for our country today.
How was your week? It was fun for us to work together as a family on Tuesday night as we got our final items out of the condo we are selling. We sat around our dining room table after we finished and enjoyed Mexican takeout. So grateful we get to have those dinners together.
Like I mentioned last week, there has been a lot of emotion and difference of opinion surrounding the 2020 election results. This week we are having the inauguration ceremony for our President elect and our Vice President elect at the United States Capitol.
A few interesting facts about Inaugurations.
- An inauguration ceremony is where the new president and vice president are sworn into office.
- There have been fifty-eight oaths of office given and received in the history of our nation.
- Inauguration ceremonies started in 1789 with our first president George Washington and his Vice President John Adams. Our most recent ceremony was in 2016 without current president Donald Trump and his Vice President Mike Pence.
- They used to be held on March 4th to allow for officials to gather election returns and for newly elected candidates to travel to the capital. It was changed to January 20th in 1933 as technology and travel got easier, not as much time was needed to get everyone in place. The first inauguration that was held on January 20th was held in 1937.
- This year it will be held on January 20th in our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. This is when our President-elect Joe Biden and our Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn into their new positions.
We know somethings about our President elect, Joe Biden, he served as Vice President under former President Barack Obama. But who is Kamala Harris?
Kamala Harris
According to the Senate.gov website, Kamala Harris is
Currently,
- a United States Senator for California
- second African American woman to serve in that role.
- first South Asian-American woman to serve in that role.
Soon to be,
- The first African American, South Asian-American woman to serve as our nation’s Vice President.
Her early background
According to an article in Politico Magazine, 55 Things You Need to Know About Kamala Harris, she was born in Oakland, California, the eldest of two children with a mother who was a cancer researcher and a father who was an economist. Her parents divorced when she was seven and her mother raised her and her sister in a duplex in Berkley. She rode the bus to her school, Thousand Oaks Elementary, in its second year of the integration of black students into their school. After attending middle school and high school in Montreal, she returned to the United States to attend Howard University and obtained her political science degree. After completing her law degree at the University of California, Hastings and passing the bar exam, she became a prosecutor, since she wanted to change the system from the inside.
Determination and passion are traits I admire.
Her determination has helped her to achieve many things during her lifetime. She was the first woman to do quite a few of them. Including being first Black woman to be elected the District Attorney in California. It has also helped her to showcase her passion to fight for others in a national spotlight.
Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, also broke barriers in her field and brought other people with her. She told Kamala, “you may be the first to do many things, make sure you aren’t the last.”
These are the kind of traits I look for in someone who is going to have a key role in helping to unify our country.
As she enters the White House
With Harris serving as the Vice President of our country, we are celebrating diversity in the executive branch of our government again. It is the second time an African American has served in that office, but it is the first time it will be a woman. Biden and Harris won the election with an unprecedented voter turnout, even during a pandemic.
Part of their platform is fixing what is broken.
- Investing in American Workforce
- Involving science in the solution
- Fight for criminal justice reform – to help curb some of the racial inequality issue.
- Reform to the public school system to help all school districts.
According to an interview that Harris did with Vogue Magazine, published in January 2021, she talks about how bringing the country together is the biggest challenge facing our country.
“Americans share the same concerns that keep them up at night regardless of where they live, the color of their skin or the God they pray to. We have more in common than what separates us. It isn’t in our best interest to have one group suffer for who they are.”
An asset to help unify our country.
Government officials should be more than just a party affiliation. They are people who should have a passion for the people they serve. Whether you follow the Democrats, Republicans, or a mix, I believe Kamala Harris will be a great person to be involved in unifying our country. Her determination and passion in fighting for what is right are the kind of traits I want for a person to serve in that role.
What traits do you look for in an elected official? Please let me know in the comments below.
Be sure to take a look around my website!
If you have a little time this week, look around my website. There is a link to purchase my book, information about me and the upcoming release of my second book, and a way for you to subscribe to my email list and follow my writing journey.
Have a great week!
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