President Biden Behaves Like Decent Human Being

Do the right thing. Help other people. That’s not headline news for a public servant; that’s every day’s work.

But after four years of the last guy, it is refreshing to see the President of the United States exhibit common decency, helpfulness, and service as his natural impulse:

The guy in the suit is the most powerful man in the world, President Joe Biden. The little girl who dropped the toy is the daughter of Capitol Police Officer William “Billy” Evans, who died serving his country on April 2 and who lay in honor in the Capitol Rotunda today.

President Biden then said some gentle and decent things to the Evans family and the nation:

That’s how you’re all going to know that you’re going to make it — by holding each other together, and most importantly, by holding Logan and Abigail as tightly as you can.  Because as long as you have them, you’ve got Billy.  As long as you have them.

You know, my prayer for all of you is that a day will come when you have that memory, and I’ve said, “Just smile before you bring a tear to your eyes.”  It’s — I promise you it’s going to come.  It just takes a while.  It takes a while.

But when it comes, you’ll know, because he’s still with you.  He’s still in your heart.

Losing a son, daughter, brother, sister, mom, dad — it’s like losing a piece of your soul.  But it’s buried deep, but it comes back.

There’s a great quote by R.G. Ingersoll.  It was read when my son, who was the chief law enforcement officer in the state of Delaware — the attorney general — came back from Iraq after a year and he — and he died.  And they read this poem from R.G. Ingersoll, who said, “When will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns compromise with death, this is heroism.”

Your son, your husband, your brother, your dad was a hero.  And he’s part of you.  It’s in your blood.

My prayer for you is that moment when a smile comes before the tear, quicker than longer.  Thank you [President Joe Biden, remarks at Congressional Tribute for U.S. Capitol Police Officer William Evans, Washington, D.C., 2021.04.13].

We spent four ugly years headlining and Tweeting and repeating and thereby normalizing the bullying and bastardry spewing from the White House. The result was, among other things, a violent insurrection that threatened the Congress and the Constitution and led to the death of Officer Evans’s colleague, Officer Brian Sicknick.

We should spend the next four years headlining and Tweeting and repeating the things President Joe Biden says and does (and think for a moment: how much of our mindspace was dedicated just to the violent noises coming from the last guy’s mouth, and not to any actual actions, since the last guy was so much talk and so little action?) to undo that damage, to renormalize decency, helpfulness, and service… the unfailing qualities we should expect of any individual standing for election and holding public office.