Yesterday was finally the first day that I started to breathe deeply, the first day that I finally believed that the Biden-Harris term was going to happen.

I’ve been so afraid. There were so many chances that even after they’d been elected, that something would have derailed the new administration. I didn’t watch the inauguration because I was so scared there would be an assassination, and I would see it, live.

Then a day passed, and no one was killed. No one blew up the White House. People were actually starting to do some of the work that the federal government has been slacking on for four years.

So finally, two days after the inauguration, I started believing that it was real. That we really were going to have a new president. That honest to fuck there was now a woman VP, who happens to not be white.

That there might be a smidgen of hope for my country.

I will admit that the relief brought a lot of tears and ugly crying for an hour or so yesterday morning. I’m still overly emotional about it. Can’t be helped.

Will I see my country united in my lifetime? I doubt it. Not when you have “news” outlets whose sole job is to agitate their followers and bring more dissent. A return to the Fairness Doctrine wouldn’t do it either.

I like the suggestion that “news” be treated as a commercial product, when you have people who offer opinions and not just the facts. If that sort of news must be “labeled” that might help. It would apply to any news broadcast that didn’t just report the news. It would require those inflammatory stations, whether on the left or the right, to adhere a label. Doesn’t have to be much of one. Just a canned statement about how the next X minutes are strictly *opinion*.

Some might argue that people are smart enough to figure it out. But I think that “news” shows are too good at mixing the two.

Anyway – that was my yesterday. Spent the afternoon doing physical stuff after such a draining, emotional morning.

Today, I think I’ll write some. Kind of is my job. I can finally move forward again. Perhaps turn my attention from the news for a while.

And breathe.