New president, and for many, a sense of relief

By Jennifer Corr

In the days after President Biden’s swearing-in on Jan. 20, many Glen Cove residents were saying they felt a weight lifted off their shoulders.

Asked for his thoughts on the national transition of power, Nelson Melgar, a community activist, said the only word that came to mind was “relief.”

Allen Hudson III, Glen Cove High School’s assistant principal, used the same word. “I thought it was relieving that Trump was no longer president and that Biden and [Vice President] Harris were sworn in,” Hudson said. “I thought it was a beautiful event. I think it’s . . . this country beginning to heal after four years of having Trump in office.”

Before he departed on Air Force One from Joint Base Andrews the morning of the inauguration, soon-to-be former President Trump told Americans, “I love you” and “Have a good life,” leaving behind a country ravaged by Covid-19, financially decimated and ideologically divided, now in the hands of Biden and Harris.

“I thought Mr. Trump’s presidency was an immoral presidency on the ground of moral issues,” said the Rev. Roger Williams, pastor of First Baptist Church of Glen Cove, adding that he did not want his remarks to be construed as partisan. “He lacked the depth that it takes for any man or woman, whether they’re a Republican or Democrat, to lead our nation.”

The next four years, Williams said, will hopefully be an opportunity for healing.

The inauguration featured performances by Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks and a reading by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman. “I think it was well put together,” Hudson said. “I think they purposely chose people of various diverse backgrounds to represent the United States as we are, a country, a melting pot, of all races and creeds. It was a sigh of relief to know that it was peaceful.”

John Maccarone, of the Glen Cove Republican Club, said he, too, was happy to see a peaceful transition of power. “We live in a deeply divided country,” Maccarone said. “There’s no getting around that President Trump had [over 74 million] votes, more votes than any other Republican has ever got. The people who voted for him are looking to see what Biden’s going to do, and they have to be reckoned with in their needs and their concerns. Everybody should be addressed, and President Biden is going to have some tough decisions on a lot of tough things.”

Hudson said he would like to see the country move forward, continue on its journey toward true equality and reclaim its role as a superpower, because, Hudson said, he has friends in other countries who have been “shocked” by what the U.S. has become over the past four years.

“I think that much of the healing we need is outside the purview of the presidency,” Williams said. “I think a lot of the healing we need still remains, and relies on the responses of us who are everyday people, who engage each other in our communities. We just need to understand that there are some things that a president is unable to do — it has to be on us.”

With respect to the North Shore, Melgar said, conversations about national politics, which in the past would occur only once in a while, have become a daily occurrence. “I genuinely believe that we are exhausted,” he said.

And while attaining unity is an important goal, Melgar said, for now he would like to see Biden work to bring an end to the coronavirus pandemic. As someone who has experienced grief, Biden should understand very well what the people of this country have faced over the past year, Melgar added.

Photo courtesy the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff via Wikimedia Commons

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