Put a Woman in Charge

“Your time has come to shine / All your dreams are on their way,” Madam Vice-President.

Kamala Harris

Bridge Over Troubled Water

yes! John Legend sings  

A daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants graduated from Howard University and earned her law degree from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.  Elected District Attorney of San Francisco…Attorney General of California…United States Senator…Vice-President of the United States, Kamala Harris now seeks the Presidency.  Her brilliance, optimism, laughter, empathy, warmth, toughness, dancing—she forever changes the trajectory of this country.  Her nomination both addresses past injustice and embraces democracy’s promise.  Prosecutor Harris’s uproarious and widespread, diverse and unified support gallops at glee-making speed.  Cheerful lines—singing crowds.  She directly confronts her pseudo-opponent, using humor and honesty for a quick takedown.  She makes civic engagement irresistible—her campaign ads invite participation.  The August 19-22 Democratic National Convention…. 

Does Harris deserve our trust?  How about her selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate—applause, shake the rafters.  Funny and forthright, he was a member of the US House of Representatives for twelve years before becoming the Governor of Minnesota.  Walz grew up a rural Midwesterner and completed college on the GI bill.  A high school social studies teacher and football coach, the lunchroom monitor and first advisor to the gay and lesbian student alliance, he changes his mind as his understanding grows.  He spoke his first words, at their first event together in Philadelphia, turning to look at Harris standing behind him: “Thank you for bringing back the joy.”  Showing no discernible ego, Coach Walz takes the field to win her presidency.  “It is the honor of a lifetime to join Kamala Harris in this campaign.  I’m all in.  She’s showing us the politics of what’s possible.  It reminds me a bit of the first day of school.” 

Their devotion to country.  Their no-nonsense common sense.  Their wellspring of joy.

We suffered nine years of loss in the US—loss of lives, health, safety, sanity.  The hardest loss of all I only grasp upon its return.  Hope.  Without it, unshakeable futility drips.  With it, sudden elation showers.  Hope opens our hearts so that we can look forward again.  This booming campaign chant offers delicious assurance.  “We’re not going back.”  

Seeing Olympic athletes competing and spectators cheering feeds newfound energy.  Such a variety of sports—running jumping kicking twirling dribbling scoring blocking—played with raw, heightened emotion.  Why?  Every athlete represents home.  This photograph of three Black women medalists, for the first time ever together on the podium, captures Victory.  Gold to Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, silver and bronze to the USA’s Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles—how good we can be to each other.  How proud we can be of home.  What does prosecutor Kamala Harris mean to sexual assault survivor Simone Biles?  For each of her four gold medals, the gymnast donated one million dollars to the presidential campaign.       

this trio teaches 

representation matters

Olympian proof

So.  Time for poetry and music celebrating candidate Kamala Harris, revolutionary leader and a founding mother of the United States of America.   

Let’s revisit the poems saluting the 2009 Obama and 1996 Clinton (Bill) inaugurations.  Both mention the “disenfranchised dead” whom we owe unpaid debt and the old brambles that we must uproot.  Either poem is as relevant now as it was then.  Imagine Harris’s 2025 inaugural poet.  See that setting.  Help make it happen.   

Watch Elizabeth Alexander recite her “Praise Song for the Day” in 2009.  Praise those that made this new day a reality.  Never forget the disenfranchised dead, laying train tracks and bridges.  Picture them planting gardens and building homes that they then tend and clean for others.  We are at the brink of a longed-for brightening.  “What if the mightiest word is love?” she asks.  Love lights darkness.  “Praise song for walking forward in that light.”  

“We mean to be the people we meant to be / to keep us going where we meant to go.”  Watch Miller Williams recite his “Of History and Hope” in 1996.  Pave the way for a future when now-children can prosper.  Each, every, all—"equal, able, free.”  Protect hearts from chaos and minds from ignorance.  Our brambly story demands that we make corrections.  What seeds must we plant in our gardens?  

Greeting bystanders after leaving a record shop, Harris pulls from her brown shopping bag vibraphonist Roy Ayers’s “Everybody Loves the Sunshine.”  Looking at the cover, she describes it as “one of my favorite albums of all time.  It’s a classic.”  Ayers recalls that “the vibe was really nice, pure vibes” on his sunny summer walk in New York City.  Repetitive rhythm.  “Just bees and things and flowers.”  Repetitive words.  “Feel what I feel when I feel what I feel” in the sunshine.  Ease?  Ease.   

Presidential candidate Harris walks onstage at her campaign events to Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” the recorded song duetting with raucous ovations.  Beyoncé donates, performs, and campaigns for her fan.  “Hey! I’m a keep running—winners never quit,” she sings.  Rapper Kendrick Lamar’s interspersed lyrics call out the injustice caused by systemic racism.  Before her July 20, 2023 concert in Minneapolis, Governor Walz proclaimed “Beyoncé Day in the State of Minnesota” in gratitude for her financial assistance to Black-owned businesses in Minneapolis during the pandemic.  Freedom from.  Freedom to.  “Tell the sweet I’m new.” 

Keb’ Mo’ and Rosanne Cash “raise the vibration” when they “Put a Woman in Charge.”  How beautiful the Statue of Liberty looks at the end of the video montage.  His left foot taps this song’s bluesy beat written in honor of his mother.  Her right foot taps back a hallelujah.  We’ve had enough.  Let’s change the rules.  What’s going to happen when a woman takes charge? Listen to Cash.  “We’re gonna feel the magic.  It’s gonna be fantastic.” 

dance the Harris Wal(t)z 

promise of smoother sailing

thank you, Joe Biden

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