President Joe Biden, a healing and unifying leader

For four years, the American nation has been fragmented, divided, and wounded. There had been too much exclusions rather than inclusivity. Too much discrimination; racial, ethnic, and religious. The people are divided, and the states are no longer united.

There are too many barriers, boundaries, walls, and too much stress on differentiations, white over black, capital over labor, red states over blue states Republicans against Democrats. But the victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the healing and unifying factors by which God has again blessed America. Joe Biden is, unlike the one he is replacing, a unifying leader, a healing leader. He is most likely to lead the nation, not with nasty tweets and too many abrasive, adversarial, and antagonistic hashtags. He will lead with wisdom, compassion, and living examples of principled alliances among American peoples regardless of gender, social class, creed, or ideology.

There are far so many things that unite the American people, much, much more than the things that divide them. They have a common history of valor and heroism, a culture and tradition of integrity and rectitude. This is the nation founded by George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. This is the country once led by such men of high competence and courage, men like Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, James Monroe, and later by Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower. This is the nation that produced and was led by such illustrious leaders as John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, James Carter, and Barack Obama.

Joe Biden is a great leader. According to Reagan, the great leader is not necessarily the one who did the greatest things but the one who inspired others to do the greatest things. And Biden is such a man. This man has a clear goal, mission, and purpose. As John F. Kennedy once said, efforts and courage are not enough, without purpose and direction. This man has the makings of a great leader. Jefferson once wrote: “Nothing can stop the man with a positive mental attitude in pursuing his goals. Nothing can help the man with a negative mental attitude in achieving his objectives”. I think Biden has the positive attitude. I cannot say the same thing about the opponent he just defeated.

Joe Biden is the complete opposite of the outgoing president. As Abraham Lincoln once said: “Nearly all men can stand adversity. But if you want to test a man's character, give him power.” Biden is a unifier of people, the one who inspires and not irritates, or makes people feel insulted. Biden believes in people and just in himself. He is able to trust others and looks at the positive sides of others. James Buchanan once wrote: “The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” Grover Cleveland had this advice: “Unswerving loyalty to duty, constant devotion to truth and a clear conscience will overcome every discouragement and surely lead the way to high achievement.” I have no doubt whatsoever that Biden will do just that.

To the outgoing president, Eisenhower had a nugget of wisdom: “Pessimism never won a battle.” To the incoming US president, FDR had left this: “The only thing to fear is fear itself, unreasoning and unjustified terror paralyzes the will to turn retreat into advance.” And from Obama: “Change will not happen if we wait for others or for some time. We are the change we have been waiting for.” And the time is now. Yes, we can.