DELROY LINDO
I STARTED writing these words on Jan. 20, 2021, a day of historical firsts: Kamala Harris was the first African American woman to be sworn in as Vice President of the United States of America.
One of the first orders of business for VP Harris, also of South Asian descent (another first) was to swear in the state of Georgia’s first African American and Jewish senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, respectively; giving Georgia two Democratic Senators for the first time since 1992. Finally, VP Harris swore in California’s first Latino senator, Alex Padilla.
Senator Warnock, speaking about the personal significance of the day for him (it would have been his father’s 104th birthday), spoke of a “Covenant we share as Americans.”
That word, covenant, resonated very strongly with me. Why? As a noun, a covenant is “an agreement; contract; compact; or a protocol,” for example. As a verb,
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