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The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. Isaiah 11:6:
January 20, 2049, at noon at U.S. Capitol
Thirty-nine-year-old Taylor Brown, educated at Tuskegee University, Harvard University Law School, Harvard Law Review, Rhodes Scholar, Atlanta-based constitutional attorney, and first-term U.S. Senator placed her hand on the family bible held by her one-hundred-year-old grandmother. She was flanked by her parents, retired Georgia Department of Education administrators.
Chief Justice Sasha Obama administered the oath of office. Madame President’s voice rang across the Potomac: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Madame President’s passionate voice rose above the wind to the vast area surrounding the Lincoln Monument and to the generations of Americans who witnessed her elevation, including Barack and Michelle Obama, the nation’s first black occupants of the Oval Office.
The aging matriarch marveled at the phenomenon as her granddaughter strode to the podium to share her vision during the inaugural address. Having participated in the speech’s development, the old woman allowed her mind to review the massive structural and decisive humane changes occurring during the past century that culminated in this magnificent day.
Yet 29 years ago, when the new Madame President was an 11-year-old, 6th grader, America teetered on the verge of moral, fiscal, and constitutional collapse. This was during the world’s worst pandemic in a century, while the then corrupt “leader” focused solely on grifting, abuse of power, and a complicit Congress to undermine the basic foundations of America’s motto–E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one.
BUT the people prevailed and sent out a clear mandate to finally enact the systems and safeguards to strengthen an increasingly diverse and economically stratified, and politically disenfranchised population. Near the end of the president’s first term, he died, and by constitutional succession, Kamala Harris became the first Madame President.
Calling on the women who’d changed intractable Germany, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, parts of Africa, China, and India, Harris convened a post-pandemic Constitutional Convention to dismantle two centuries of laws and incoherent government rulings that promoted systemic racism against Naïve Americans and African Americans, micro and macro aggressions against women, LGBTQ people, naturalized citizens—anyone who was not a CIS gendered white man. Just like the energy exhibited by Alexander Hamilton, young people spoke-up unequivocally. They renounced compromises that continued segregation, disenfranchisement, generational poverty and pitting populace segments against each other.
Madame President drew on Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Commission on Truth and Reconciliation to encourage inter-racial harmony and transform into one nation, the most significant change to people’s hearts and behaviors to end the massive corruption and ways of interacting based on wealth and position.
Secondarily,
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s ability to unleash women’s power in all aspects of the economy, education, leadership, and governance became a cornerstone to challenge the systematic barriers to women’s ascension to political and social positions of power.
After America’s world leadership collapse, Chancellor Angela Merkel emerged as the most powerful woman. A resident of former East Germany, she pushed for reunification and one Germany. She shared their lessons learned with Madame President and youthful study groups, examining how to give life to the U.S.’s motto finally.
She immediately convened Congress’ joint sessions to revise massive parts of the constitution, beginning with the 13th Amendment. The original 13th Amendment—neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States – had been used to perpetuate inequality and mass incarceration. Reparations were finally paid to the descendants of slaves.
Monuments to slaveholders and Confederate generals, inclusive of schools, armed forces installations, county names, courthouses, etc. They were removed to museums and other places for the study of how hatred, false beliefs of racial superiority, and misuse of religion to enslave and discriminate against entire groups of people, would not be allowed to repeat the newly created laws and ways of doing business.
The Equal Rights Amendment, first proposed in 1972, was finally passed. Statues and laws in place to limit the opportunities of women were categorically eliminated and women were finally able to thrive in the work world and in their communities. Rowe vs Wade was reaffirmed as the law of the land and attempts to undermine it were finally dismantled. LGBTQ rights were affirmed and codified into law.
Image: By (top)Cezary p(bottom)MattWade – here and here, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37794073
– Joyce A. Brown
Joyce Brown is a motivational speaker and author who uses her creative energy to give voice and meaning to the challenges women face in all walks of life. She grew up in Rockford, Illinois in a household of strong women. She graduated from Bradley University with a B.S. and M.A. Her professional career expanded her reach into Peoria, Illinois; and Battle Creek, Michigan. Joyce obtained a Ph.D. from Western Michigan University.
She is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and has served as a direct services worker, executive director, program director for a major foundation, and an entrepreneur. Joyce has experienced many uplifting moments as a professional and as a dedicated parent and strives to bring those events and lessons to life through her characters in contemporary fiction novels she pens.
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