The idea behind Who Won the Week is for you to select who (or what) you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.
I will be posting this prompt on Sunday mornings (my time). If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.
In the recent past, I have often have a hard time figuring out who or what I want to designate as the winner of my Who Won the Week post. But this week, my cup runneth over. Do I pick Joe Biden, the competent, experienced, empathetic, compassionate, and sane man who took the oath of office on Wednesday as America’s new President? How about Kamala Harris, the first ever female, Black, and South Asian to serve as Vice President? How about the two new Democratic senators from Georgia, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the state’s first Jewish senator and the first Black Democratic senator, respectively, whose runoff election victories gave control of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats.
Well, I have decided to go with Amanda Gordon, the 22-year-old poet and activist from Los Angeles, and the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history. On January 20th, this remarkable young woman captured the hearts and minds of most Americans when she recited her poem, “The Hill We Climb.”
I’d never heard her before this past Wednesday, but there she was, standing straight as an arrow behind the podium, a young woman having a moment that was as close to a viral sensation as poets get in American culture. Her slow, deliberate delivery emphasized the spellbinding and healing nature of her words, words that we weary Americans needed to hear. She enchanted most in the live audience and to many of us — including me — who watched her on television, she brought tears to our eyes.
Take a few moments to watch this incredibly gifted and poised young woman. I’m sure you’ll agree that Amanda Gordon won the week.
What about you? Who (or what) do you think won the week?
Two weeks ago I was ashamed to be an American. Two weeks later, and for the first time in four long years, I am once again proud to be an American.
I usually don’t publish my Who Won the Week post until Sunday, but I’m going to make an exception today. Just one week after pro-Trump MAGA thugs stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an armed and deadly act of insurrection that was instigated and cheered on by Donal Trump, the House of Representatives, in an unprecedented move, impeached the very unpresidential president for the second time. Hence, I’m going to designate the American Democracy as an early winner of Who Won the Week.
Starting this week and running through at least Inauguration Day, armed protests by Trump supporters are being planned at all 50 state capitals and at the U.S. Capitol, according to an internal FBI bulletin.