it's Joe time!!!!!
Happy Monday to only Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States!!!!!
I’m kidding — obviously — I wish everyone a very happy Monday! But it is wildly refreshing to know that there will be a day when we say President and “Donald Trump” is not the name that comes after it, right?!
There’ve been more than a few moments over the last seven years of my journalism career where I’ve known that what I’m seeing and/or reporting on will be in the history books. Off the bat, I think of Ferguson. The shooting at Chapel Hill. The night of the 2016 election. The Women’s March. The first Harvey Weinstein story. The Parkland shooting. The Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting. Christine Blasey Ford speaking at Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court hearing. Notre Dame burning. Trump’s impeachment. COVID-19 becoming a pandemic. The police killing of George Floyd sparking nationwide protests.
Between those events, there are hundreds if not thousands of other stories worth telling and remembering. But those are just some distinct moments in time where I’ve remembered taking a beat to take a mental snapshot. “Do not forget this,” I’ve told myself. A silly-sounding gesture that has helped me carve out space in my brain, preserving these instants from getting swept away into the blur of ceaseless news cycles.
As of this weekend, a new moment got added to the roster of “big ones”: Donald Trump lost reelection after a surreal four years in office and former vice president Joe Biden will take office in 2021.
The seismic shift in atmosphere upon Biden getting called as the winner (after an election week from hell) cannot be understated. In New York, people literally started dancing in the streets, popping champagne, and screaming from the rooftops. My neighbor colorfully declared to passersby below and nearby that it was time to “get that fucker out of the Oval Office.”
New York is known for being exceptional in what can happen here. There’s a phrase, “only in New York” for a reason. So, I can’t speak to how fantastic the celebrations were elsewhere in the country, but in New York — namely Brooklyn — they were so, so special. I feel really lucky to have bore witness to a handful of them. And to have heard so many bottles poppin’.
In a year of such uncertainty (and frankly, pure chaos), the Biden win feels like hope for a return to normalcy or at least familiarity. I don’t have a crystal ball nor do I really believe in my heart of hearts that Biden will be a perfect president or even a particularly excellent one (though I’d be hard-pressed to say I believe a perfect anything, let alone a president could exist). But it is a promise that change from the chaotic, dangerous, and frightening 2020 status quo is coming.
Here are some more of my favorite Brooklyn moments from this weekend celebrating that promise:
Catch you here soon, fam. Stay safe out there and, in case you needed external approval, feel free to drink a little extra bubbly this week.
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