JOE BIDEN; THE MAN

An example to all politicians, especially the ones in our paradise isle

The Praying Mantis

He has made it. Mr Joe Biden is the President-Elect of the United States of America. Even in spite of all her Foreign Policy misadventures, the USA has this time endeavoured to raise the bar of admirable political governance and splendidly responsible leadership that the world and those who seek to truly serve the people must learn from. Joe Biden is a natural and true politician. He is a man of the people and indeed, and most definitely, a man for the people. As things turned out, he is the epitome of the axiom ‘you cannot put a good man down’, implying that if people are able and determined, they will recover from any difficulties or problems and be successful.

He has come through the tragic motor traffic accident on 13th December 1972 that claimed the lives of his wife Neilia and his only daughter 13-month-old Amy, and left his two sons Beau and Hunter seriously injured, when the station wagon driven by Neilia collided with another vehicle. Joe Biden was in Washington DC that day. Luckily, the two boys recovered, slowly but surely. However, while he was heartened by the boys’ improving conditions, the widower was reported to have found himself consumed by anger, at times roaming the streets at night with the hope that someone would pick a fight with him. He is also believed to have contemplated taking his own life at that stage but had felt that he was the only one left to care for his two sons who had just lost their mother and their only sister. Then he had decided to take that responsibility very seriously and to go on and take life as it came. He recovered by focusing on the well-being of his surviving sons. In fact, Joe Biden took the oath of office as a Senator from U.S. Senate Secretary Frank Valeo in his son Beau’s hospital room. That in itself is a reflection of his commitment to his family, that has been torn apart by a totally unexpected catastrophe. Later, he made it a point to be home for dinner with his sons, virtually every day, read them bed-time stories and be there for breakfast with them.

As it turned out, it certainly helped that another woman came into his life a few years later when his brother set him up with fellow University of Delaware student Jill Jacobs in 1975. When it gradually became clear that Jill was an indispensable part of their tightly-knit clan, it was indeed the two boys who pushed their old man to pop the question once again. Shortly before their 1977 wedding, Joe asked his fiancée Jill, how she could commit herself to marriage knowing his feelings for his first wife. She had replied “anybody who can love that deeply once, can do it again”. Joe Biden has later written “that is when I realized exactly what Jill’s love had done for me. It had given me permission to be me again”. Indeed, he was dead right; the First Lady-Elect has been the wind beneath his wings.

Incidentally, Jill Biden is also a Professor in the English Department at Northern Virginia Community College and has now made history as a full-time teacher to become the First Lady. The incoming first lady took leave of absence from what would have been her 36th year of teaching, to campaign for her husband. During that crusade, she worked tirelessly to emphasize the importance of education in a year where the coronavirus pandemic upended millions of Americans’ hopes for their children to safely return to school. Now, Jill Biden plans to return to work, balancing both her duties as a teacher and the First Lady. In August 2020, she said in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning that she planned to continue working as a teacher while her husband runs the country.

Back to the man himself. Joe Biden had been in public office in the USA for over four decades. He was elected into the Senate at age 29, served in the Senate for 35 years and then was the Vice-President of that country for 8 years. As of now, he is scheduled to take office as the President of the USA in January 2021. Yet for all that, it is on record that in 2013 he could not afford to pay for the expensive brain cancer treatment of his son who was the Attorney General of his State of Delaware. The son was an Iraq war veteran who served in the Army before he became Attorney General. Joe Biden had to offer his house for sale to be able to pay for the medical care of his son. Of course the son must have spent himself out before Biden the father, could come in to help pay the bill. President Obama had to stop Joe Biden from selling his house and offered to pay for the medical care from his own personal money. Unfortunately, the son Beau, died in 2015 but not before his loving father had given all of his best to him.

Delaware, the region from which Joe Biden hails, is quite close to Washington and even as a Senator, he had come to Washington by train from Delaware every day for work at the Capitol Hill. Then, after work, he used to go back home in the train as well. He did join the train crowd going back home when he ended his tour of duty as the Vice President of the United States of America. Delaware absolutely loves Biden for his years of service to the State and the people of the United States. They call him the great son of Delaware. The younger members of the populace call him ‘Uncle Joe’. The point made here is of a man who served for 35 years as a Senator and 8 years as the Vice President of the USA and yet for all that had no tonnes of money buried inside his compound or in bank accounts.

Uncle Sam, the popular symbol for the United States, usually associated with a cartoon figure having long white hair and chin whiskers, dressed in a swallow-tailed coat, vest, tall hat, and striped trousers, will now have Uncle Joe as its First Citizen. The real mettle of this man is shown up dazzlingly well by just one recent episode. California Senator Ms Kamala Harris was a very strong contender for nomination as the Democratic Party candidate for the 2020 Presidential Election. At one stage she and Joe Biden had stormy arguments and strong words were exchanged. They practically had daggers drawn at each other. Then, due to a variety of circumstances, Kamala Harris withdrew from the race, in which she really had a very promising chance. Later, Joe Biden made it as the Democratic Party nominee.

Surprise, SURPRISE…, when Joe Biden announced that he was picking California Senator and former presidential candidate Kamala Harris as his running mate, history was made. Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, was the first woman of colour to ever be named a Vice Presidential running mate. In his announcement on Twitter, Joe Biden praised Harris, calling her “a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants”. Then they became allies and now Kamala Harris has indeed made history as the very first ever Lady Vice President and the first coloured person to hold that position in the entire history of the United States of America. It just goes to show what type of man Joe Biden really is. He had no hesitation in nominating one of his strongest critics as his running mate simply because he thought that she was the best person for the job. His interest was in America and not in holding grudges against people. Judging by her past record, we have no doubt that she would deliver the goods.

How and where the politicians in the USA get their commitment and contentment, that our own lot of the same breed here, cannot go and find, would be an eternal mystery. Leadership is about service. It is not a place to become millionnaires and billionaires. For Mr Joe Biden, and for his principles in life, there is nothing else but our tremendous admiration and respect.

Finally, as for us, something from our past rings a very strong bell. This reminds us of Dr W. Dahanayake, who took the bus to Galle after he finished his term as Prime Minister. What a Great Man; perhaps he was our own ‘Uncle Daha’. Many in our resplendent isle today, would give their right arm for statesmen of that calibre.