(GNB Desk): President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris delivered remarks at the memorial services at Lincoln Memorial to honor American COVID-19 victims Tuesday, the same day the national death toll surpassed 400,000.
The Ceremony was hosted by the Presidential Inaugural Committee to remember and honor the lives lost to COVID-19 in cities and towns across the country. A Washington, D.C. ceremony was featured 400 lights around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
“To heal, we must remember,” Biden said, with the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool behind him. “It’s hard sometimes to remember. But that’s how we heal.”
It was Biden’s first stop in Washington after arriving earlier in the day ahead of his inauguration on Jan. 20.
Organizers placed lights around the perimeter of the pool, a first-time measure, according to the transition team, to memorialize the victims.
“let us shine the lights in the darkness along the sacred pool of reflection and remember all whom we lost,” Biden said between sundown and dusk”.
Vice President- Elect Kamala Harris spoke before Biden, the incoming president, said the event was meant to “pay tribute” to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have died from the illness. the pandemic should serve as a reminder to celebrate the small things in life, she said.
Haris said “Tonight, we grieve and begin healing together. Though we may be physically separated, we, the American people, are united in spirit.”
Harris, introduced frontline nurse Lori Marie Key to sing “Amazing Grace.”
Biden said, “If there are any angels in heaven, they’re all nurses,” taking the podium after Marie Key left the stage.
Biden was in Delaware for one final event before he headed to Washington for inauguration.
Photo via @Bran_InTheArena
The Presidential Inaugural Committee put up “Field of Flags” on Monday night, representing the American people who are unable to travel to Washington, DC, for Inauguration Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic and security threats. Fifty-six pillars of light, representing the US states and territories, were also lit up for 46 seconds to mark the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden.
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