America makes another huge step forward.

So much of the world so desperately wants America to be good and great again, that it bears recalling one of the ugliest times in the nation’s history, best characterized by this Dorothea Lange depression era picture.

Mississippi, June 1937

Some seventy years after Lange snapped this picture, bigotry and racism remain nascent in much of our nation, but we rise above this, moving on joyfully.

The bursting blood vessels, the guns, the bibles, the braying of hounds and the clinking of manacles become ever more distant as America once more has the opportunity of being a beacon of light and progress. The senescent purported ‘hero’ (when Americans say ‘hero’ they usually mean ‘victim’) and his boastful ignoramus of a running mate will now return to the cesspool whence they came, hopefully never to be heard from again. An America whose leaders denigrate education, intelligence and thoughtful reflection is not one I want anything to do with. Judging by yesterday’s polling, I am not alone.

It’s been a long time since January 20, 1980, the last time Americans proudly held their heads high and thought “This is what we stand for. This is the example we will set”. Since that time we have seen an America guilty of unilateral military aggression, the abolition of many rights granted us in the Constitution, and crimes of greed unparalleled in our short history. I, along with many of my fellow Americans, hope that the new administration will once more make America an example, not the pariah it has become.

Those who appreciate Lange’s iconic photograph understand.