My heart swelled with relief and pride, as our President Biden attended this year's G7 Conference, held in Cornwall, United Kingdom. We are again a nation concerned with the environment, and committed to working with the distinguished representatives of the 6 other member countries. 

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish environmental activist, admonished world leaders for failing to address the urgency of climate change. Her organization, Fridays for Future, is a youth-led group that fights for more equitable and powerful laws regarding climate and the environment. She is right to admonish all nations for not doing enough to deal with climate change. And, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

Planning for future generations is not a new concept, by any means. In fact, the Seventh Generation plan developed by the ancient Iroquois Haudenosaunee became the guiding principle by which the tribes governed. 

Dating back to at least 1500 AD, the Seventh Generation principle, also called The Great Law, became the social, political and ceremonial fabric of the Five (later Six) Nation Confederacy. In fact, the American Constitution contains contributions from The Great Law, possibly thanks to Ben Franklin, who greatly admired the way the Haudenosaunee governed.

The Seventh Generation Principle in modern times is often brought up when decisions about water, natural resources and energy are made whether participants realize it or not. How will what we do today affect later generations? The idea that what we do now impacts future generations is an ancient one. 

The following brief, but engaging video further explains how Native Americans lived to honor people "seven generations" into the future using the Seven Generations Rule. 

Coming soon: Other ways early Native American principles not only impacted our past, but teach us about the future as well. 

 “Vaccines have the potential to be the equalizer of health disparities, especially around infectious diseases. I could never sleep at night if I developed anything — if any product of my science came out — and it did not equally benefit the people that look like me. Period.” - Kizzmekia Corbett, Immunologist

Kizzmekia Corbett is an immunologist at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is one of the many scientists who worked in collaboration with biotech firm Moderna to develop a COVID-19 vaccine now used around the world.

Her role in developing a vaccine to fight COVID-19 began in early 2020. But, her current challenge in that fight is nearly as important. As a Black scientist, Corbett understands all too well the vaccine hesitancy of people of color.

Medical research consistently exploited Black communities in particular. You only have to look back as recently as the 1970s, when conducting a long-term study that began in the 1930s, doctors withheld syphilis treatment from hundreds of Black men in Tuskegee, Alabama without their knowledge.

Or, look at the massive amounts of research and curatives that resulted from the cells of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman who died of cancer. Neither she, nor her family, were asked permission for her cells to be used in research or received any type of monetary compensation until recent attempts at reparations came forth.

Kizzmekia Corbett is in a unique position to reach out to communities of color. She knows exactly what’s in the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as the undeniable history of medical research exploitation. She understands. But, as she says in an interview with Nature.com:

“I have studied health disparities since I was in college. I’m a double major in sociology. I understand the intricate interlacing of science and health, particularly for disparities, and particularly for people of color. So it’s near and dear to my heart. It’s actually the reason vaccine development is important to me, and is where I chose to take my viral-immunology career.”

How does Kizzmekia Corbett see her role now?

“My role is to deliver science in a digestible fashion. When I present a bar chart, I say, “This is the axis, and this is what you’re seeing, and this is how it was tested.” So, the goal is that eventually people see enough of this, and we get to a point where we don’t have to do that anymore.” - Kizzmekia Corbett, interview with Nature.com.

Let me say that again ─ President Biden.
 
It feels so good.  
 
A day or two before Inauguration day, I was so worried about then President-elect Joe Biden's safety I actually wondered if I should email Rachel Maddow. I wanted to ask Ms. Maddow to call Dr. Biden and urge her to encourage her husband to have an indoor ceremony. Roosevelt did that once. Of course, I didn't. I was that worried, though.
 
Having recently read the book and talked about "Lincoln on the Verge" detailing Lincoln's 13-day trip to D.C. from Illinois, I couldn't help but think about the similarities. People wanted to kill Lincoln. The trip was a nightmare for those responsible for his safety. He kept getting out off the train to talk to the people. But, he made it.

​I remember watching President Obama and his family on the customary "walk down the street" to the White House after his inauguration. "Get back in the car," I urged. And, here we were again. Eighty-one million of us voted for Joseph Biden. He is our president. As he, Dr. Biden and members of their family "walked down the street," I silently wished them back in the car.

High Expectations

We all have high expectations of the Biden presidency. We're relieved, yes, but we also expect a lot from his administration. As Jesus said in the film, "Jesus Christ Superstar," ─ "I'm just one man," ─ so Joseph R. Biden is just one man.  (I just had to throw a film reference in here. Cut me a little slack.)
 
President Biden knows better than anyone what needs to be done. He surrounded himself with a superb group of gifted people to help him move the country forward. He is the most qualified man on the face of the earth to step into this presidency. Hands down.
 
Still, he is just one man. We need to remind ourselves of the importance of teamwork, and temper a tendency to expect the President to be a knight in shining armor on a white horse coming to our rescue. We have to work with Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris to repair the damage of the last four years and "build back better." President Biden needs our help. We can't let him down.

Guest Post by Kristine Schwartzman

Moments like these don't often come along. But, the election of Kamala Harris as Vice President is full of historic firsts that will forever change the political landscape in the United States.

Vice President-elect Harris will not only be the first woman to serve in that capacity, but also the first Asian American, and first Black Vice President. The significance of her candidacy and election inspired women and girls across the country.
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Five-year-old Andrea Richardson-George watched Kamala Harris, wearing a white Suffragist suit, give her victory speech after the election. According to her mother, Ashley Richardson-George, Andrea ran into her bedroom and came back wearing a white dress and sweater. "So, for her," Ms. Richardson-George said, "she was like, 'I can be president.' So to see that glimmer in her eyes as a parent, it really is powerful to me as her mom." Source: AP News, "Kamala Harris win inspires women and girls nationwide"

It's not just younger women who are inspired. Women of every age, many of whom waited a long time for this moment are moved by Harris's historic win.
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“I never imagined as a child growing up in the ‘50s, that I would see a woman of color as a vice presidential nominee,” 75-year-old New Yorker Judith Komaki explains. “To actually see Kamala, a woman and a person of color, ascend to this position—it opens up a dream that I had never anticipated or aspired to. It just makes my heart sing.” Source: Time Magazine, "The Historic Barriers Kamala Harris Overcame to Become the First Female, First Black and First Asian American Vice-President Elect"

The head of the Free-Soil Party was Henry Stanton, husband of the suffragette, Susan Cady Stanton. Other well-known abolitionists active in the Free-Soil party included Frederick Douglas, the Beecher family, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman and John Greenleaf Whittier. The Free-Soil Party enjoyed brief revivals in 2014 and gained attention again in 2019. ​

During one of her shows, Oprah Winfrey told one of the sweetest stories about a pastor she knows named Otis Moss, Jr. His father, Otis Moss, Sr. was a poor sharecropper. 

When Otis Moss, Sr. learned that black men had won the right to vote, he was thrilled. When voting day rolled around that year, Mr. Moss, elderly by then, got up in the morning, put on his best suit, and walked the 6 miles to the polling place. 

As he got to what he had been told was the proper voting place, they told him he had to go to another polling place. It was another 6 miles down the road. He walked that distance, only to be told again he had to vote at another location. 
​
He set out for that polling place, and when he arrived, he found the door closed. Mr. Moss was too late to vote. He walked 19 miles by the time he returned home and was grievously disappointed that he had not been able to vote. When election day came around the next year, Otis Moss Sr. had died.

Whenever I think of this true story, I tear up, and it takes me a while before I can get the image of this dear, conscientious man walking the 19 miles that day to vote. To him, and so many of our wonderful citizens who waited so long for the privilege, making every effort to cast their vote was an honor many thought they would never see. 

I wonder how many of us really feel that level of honor and privilege when we vote. Many, I hope. For it is a privilege, as nobody knows better than one who has waited so long to exercise their hard-fought right, when they should, indeed, have never been denied in the first place.
​Bless them, bless them. There Mr. Moss was, dressed in his Sunday best suit, who walked 19 miles to vote. He was not alone.

Oprah Winfrey tells the story here: 

The movie does help us understand some little known ways and methods used to aid fugitives. Early in the film, Harriet decided to return for her husband and children and is told that she might get help from men who made the journey back and forth on boats, helping people where they could. It was with their help that she reconnected with her husband. I will not be a spoiler. You will have to watch to learn what happens next.
     
Harriet, who had been known as Araminta Ross when a slave on the plantation, had actually grown up, as many did, along with their white master’s children. Some of those relationships over those years, were deep and true, despite the differences in stations. 
 
Harriet Tubman, called the Moses of her people, never learned to read. But, some slaves did because of the close relationships that developed with the children in the household. Nancy Kendall speaks of one such young woman. The 25-year-old woman arrived at the Kendall home one night exhausted and cold. 
 
Nancy asked her why she was being so heavily pursued. The woman explained she had been a house "girl" for a family with two young daughters. The girls thought highly of her and taught her to read. When their father found out his house "girl" could read, he made plans to sell her for $1000. Apparently the ability to read added to her "value." 
 
The two young daughters, who were 16 and 18 at the time, warned their friend of what was about to happen, and she fled. Nancy Kendall writes, "When I See the Intellect that Girl Seemed to have it Was too bad and unjust for any one to Say they are not Capable of learning an Couldent manage business."*

Nancy asked the young woman if she would write to her from Canada to let her know she was safe. "About a Month After She Was here I got a letter from her," Nancy writes.*

Cynthia Erivo plays Harriet Tubman in the film. As with most life stories on the big screen, the timeline of events and a few of the side stories are not completely accurate. But film has a wonderful way of making us feel part of something bigger. And, making us want to know more.

* Spellings and wording as transcribed from Nancy Kendall's journal.​