It’s the last Friday of the month. “In Darkness, Be Light.”

A different sort of good news—for America and derivatively the world. The US narrowly avoided the loss of its 240-year-old democracy at the instigation of an aspiring autocrat.

On January sixth, thousands of insurrectionists attacked the nation’s capitol. Their purpose was to deny the will of more than 80 million people to put Joe Biden in office as President, replacing Donald Trump. Trump lost by more than seven million votes in a free and fair election–contrary to his claims and those who accepted his big lie. More than 140 members of the Capitol Police were killed or injured severely. Ironically, 140 Republican members of the US House of Representatives objected to the certification of Biden electors—after their lives (possibly) and those of Democratic members of the House or Senate were threatened by the violent extremists answering Trump’s call to restore him to office.

We can assume that any members of the GOP (America’s Republican Party) who didn’t swear allegiance to Trump in his effort to void the election could have been killed by the insurgents if asked. They failed to get face to face with elected officials—including the now former Vice-President, Mike Pence. Because Pence had already informed Trump and the public that he wouldn’t deny certification of the election, the insurrectionists put up a gallows outside the building and loudly proclaimed the intention to hang Pence.

Biden was safely inaugurated on January 20^th, despite the events of January sixth. Since then, he has issued more than forty Executive Orders—many of them rescinding racist, sexist, Islamophobic, environmentally harmful actions. Others would provide various benefits to suffering people. Still more were intended to aid in the battle to overcome the pandemic and give economic relief to those who need it.

The US has disproportionately led the world in COVID-19 cases and deaths per capita far in excess of its population versus the rest of the world—due primarily to Trump administration’s incompetence, negligence and intentions to disregard the threat of the disease. That will change with the addition of people of skill, expertise and experience in positions of responsibility–rather than loyalty to a leader being their only reason for hire.

There is a new, brighter day in America with leadership of integrity, competence and compassion for all its people. Biden is already reaching not only across the country’s diverse population but to the world, bringing hope of reversing climate change and the many forms of hatred.

Yes, this reads a lot like politics. It is, in part. But it’s also human decency. Political leaders cannot solve all the world’s problems. That takes all of us. But they can make things much worse—especially if there are those among us who are OK with that. Many of them are still in office. Many of them and those American citizens who bought the lies he spun, enabled the former president to nearly destroy America as it now exists. They have not given up. They were always here; they just found encouragement and acceptance from Trump. The hope is that the delusions and hatred of those who aren’t too far gone can be overcome by those who have a more humanistic nature—and be awakened to responsibility for their own happiness and success and not blame others for the lack of those goals.