Locals look toward unity under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris
The Hawk Eye
The historic inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday left many locals cautiously optimistic for a restored sense of unity following four years of Donald Trump s oftentimes divisive presidency.
Ryan Osbourne, a government teacher at Burlington High School, said divisions between the country s two main political parties are nothing new, especially around elections, but the U.S. has a long history of overcoming those differences and forging ahead. The country is divided right now, Osbourne said. But we ve seen division before, and I think that we are in a situation where division is going to happen because that s the way democracy works and sometimes that division gets exacerbated, it gets a little messy and chaotic even, but at least to this point in our history, we ve shown the ability to overcome it. . Our institutions have held up and
The Hawk Eye
Regardless of their political affiliations, southeast Iowa residents largely condemned the violent protests that broke out Wednesday at the nation s Capitol as a mob of people some wearing MAGA hats and carrying flags and others dressed in full-out costumes rushed into the building where the U.S. Senate and Congress had convened to certify results of the 2020 election. It was deplorable, said Tom Greene, Republican state senator of Iowa s 44th District. It was embarrassing.
Greene, who will officially end his first and only term in office on Monday when Tim Goodwin is sworn in, believes the storming of the Capitol building was the culmination of many things, including increasing violence seen throughout the U.S. over the past several years and blatant shows of disrespect by politicians.