On January 25, 1981, thousands of Hudson Valley residents gathered outside the gates of Stewart Airport to welcome home 52 Americans who had been held hostage in Iran. Their captivity had begun on November 4, 1979 when Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy. It ended 444 days later on January 20, 1981, just moments after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President of the United States.
After a stopover at a military hospital in West Germany, they were welcomed as heroes in Newburgh. Thousands lined the gates along Route 17K on that Super Bowl Sunday to watch their Air Force jet touch down on American soil. From there, the former hostages boarded buses bound for the Hotel Thayer at West Point, with cheering, flag-waving throngs of people lining the route which would be re-christened Freedom Road in their honor. Just days into the new Reagan administration, it was a time of unabashed patriotism and American unity.
For many reasons, that seems like a lifetime ago.
We don’t need to go back 40 years in time to find a more unified America. Four years is enough.
The America that Joe Biden inherits this week - ravaged by the worst pandemic in modern times - is more divided than any time since the Civil War. That’s when Americans had reason to fear the specter of the nation’s Capitol being stormed by an armed mob waving Confederate flags. Lincoln’s worst fear became Trump’s reality - an image that left Americans shaken and America’s allies and adversaries alike wondering if we’ve seen the decline of American Democracy.
The task that awaits our 46th President is monumental. It begins with restoring our collective health: a safe and structured distribution of the vaccine that will kill off the deadly virus, and assistance for all the families and businesses that have struggled during this pandemic. Only then can we open up again, rebuild our economy and restore the civility of a simpler and better time.
It’s a long journey. We all need to be on board for the ride.