What Happened On January 20th

An exercise in directing attention

Hello friends. I’m sending out a special edition this week, because it’s a historic moment, and I wanted to share with you some of the important events and analysis from January 20th, 2025.

“The Shelter Of The World” by Moira Crone

The people of Jamaica, his homeland, celebrated the posthumous pardon of civil rights hero Marcus Garvey, 101 years after his unjust conviction on charges of mail fraud.

“Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940) was a renowned civil rights and human rights leader…Garvey created the Black Star Line, the first Black-owned shipping line and method of international travel, and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which celebrated African history and culture. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described Mr. Garvey as ‘the first man of color in the history of the United States to lead and develop a mass movement.”

President Biden likewise commuted the sentence of Leonard Peltier, the ailing, nearly blind 80 year old Native American rights activist who has spent decades in prison for murder after a trial rife with lies and misconduct.

“It’s finally over – I’m going home.” he said in a statement. “I want to show the world I’m a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me.”

Emily Damari, Ronen Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher spent the first full day with their families after being released from 471 days of captivity in Gaza.

The EU announced that it is determined to stop buying fossil gas and other fossil fuels from Russia.

In New Orleans, where I am right now, people tenderly, carefully wrapped their beloved trees, shrubs, and hanging flower baskets in blankets or black plastic in advance of a predicted historic winter snowstorm.

Cecile Richards died. She was president of Planned Parenthood for over a decade and a major national advocate for women’s health and self-determination. Jessica Valenti wrote:

“Cecile’s family asked that we honor her by playing some New Orleans jazz music, gather with friends and family, and remember something she said often over the last year:

“It’s not hard to imagine future generations one day asking: ‘When there was so much at stake for our country, what did you do?’ The only acceptable answer is: ‘Everything we could.’”

A newly published book explained that the Hohokam, an ancient farming society based in the Sonoran desert of Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, depended for their lives on rain. They were water architects, building canals and terraces, and cultivating plants at the mouths of arroyos where water intermittently flowed. They played shell trumpets, shook copper bells, and treasured blue-green and shimmery stones, all as symbolic rituals evoking the life-giving water.

Sunrise Movement activists in Los Angeles wrapped up a five day occupation of the Phillips 66 fossil fuel facility, which drew visits from many local elected officials and created a focal point for a discussion about holding the industry accountable for the wildfires and other ongoing and accelerating harms.

A brand-new scientific research paper enumerated the benefits of pavement constructed to reflect light and absorb less heat. This can reduce the “urban heat island” effect, making for cooler cities.

My father turned 75 years old. Enjoying good health, a strong community and continuing vital creativity, he celebrated by organizing a poetry reading at the gallery where his wife had also curated a show of paintings, including her own, and by going to brunch with his family. He had the duck hash with blackberries.

In Atlanta, the youngest daughter of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bernice King, spoke at the official commemoration of his birthday.

“My father and those that aligned with his leadership were faced with ipmossible circumstances. They dealt with recalcitrant and defiant leaders. They lacked political representation. They didn’t have laws or policies in place to buttress them. Yet they didn’t recoil or retreat…

Despite all they faced it was with the power of a soul force, generated by love, a spiritual determination to stay focused on mission, and a belief that with God nothing is impossible…that they were able to destroy de jure, by law, segregation without destroying people. They were able to get the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act into law. They understood that the Mission was greater than any political party…it was a mission ultimately commanded by God to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.”

“We must remember what we faced before and how we faced it.”