Few words ring with such clarity as those uttered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. back in April of 1967 when he spoke of the “fierce urgency of now.” He was referring to a time to stop talking and to act in response to national issues surrounding the Vietnam war. That is what great leaders do. Sometimes we can dig a bit deeper into our collective will and treat the issue at hand as a challenge to our dignity and to our sense of history. We tend to look upon national challenges that way when events weigh heavily upon us. On rarer occasions, we must look beyond today and call upon our better angels and to our sense of purpose. That is when we seek to find the good that we can do—for us and for our posterity. In those instances we must become visionaries, and search beyond the events of the day. As the trial of Donald Trump begins, we must surge past the petty arguments that demean and divide us while they obscure our vision of "the silver lining.” 

Donald Trump is an aberration, a fool out of step with our times, and in tune with thugs and images from the past. We must put him far behind us. He is neither a problem that needs to be solved, nor a challenge that threatens our sense of history. He is too small in character to be too big to conquer. His days of thug rule are over. Beyond the artificial glitter and the glitz that was Trump lies our destiny. We need to re-capture it, re-embrace it, and re-shape it in such a way that his kind never again rise to power. Destiny is calling us to find our moral compass, to re-set it, and to follow it with a certainty worthy of ourselves.

Today our democracy is still under siege. We have come too far to relinquish it to any person, or to any cause, or to any political movement. Trump probably has enough clingers-on to his imaginary political skills for an outright win in his fake impeachment trial. But he does not have the skills to overcome a separate vote to forbid him from ever again holding public office. According to some legal experts, that is all that is needed to keep him out of office. He needs to be put “out to pasture.”

America is backed up with other issues that need attention. The pandemic still looms; restoring the economy is gaining urgency; infrastructure needs abound; climate change needs are everywhere; green issues are in the foreground; inequality and living income issues are pushing up the list; while immigration and transportation needs remain pressing issues.

President Biden is proving that he is anything but too old to govern. He is winning approval from all sectors, all ages, and all political persuasions. He has rolled back most of the really bad executive orders of his predecessor. He is moving quickly in establishing a coherent vaccine distribution program. His cabinet is filling up with top-level persons who are taking their positions in ready-to-go style. We are back in the World Health Organization, the Paris Climate Accords, and we have put Vladimir Putin on notice that his days of fiddling in our affairs are over.

It’s too early to celebrate, but the clouds are beginning to part—a little. Neither the lining nor its color are visible--yet.