By Glynn Wilson –

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Monday, Dec. 14, 2020 may go down in history as a pivotal turning point from the darkness of 2020 to the light coming to America and the world in 2021.

It would be hard to find anyone to argue with the statement that 2020 was the darkest, worst year in recent memory, marred by the worst global health pandemic ever, along with an economic recession rivaling the Great Depression. Racial and political strife was off the charts in the divided United States. And then don’t forget all the hurricanes slamming the coasts and the out of control wildfires in the American West.

It was a cold, cloudy day here on Monday, a hard day to get outside. But the sun came out over the Great Smoky Mountains Tuesday morning to a world where the first health care workers began getting the first COVID vaccines and the Electoral College voted without any glitches and confirmed that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will take over in Washington in January, finally sending Donald Trump packing in spite of he and his faithful followers continuing to push a false conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from him.

Yes, the number of people who have died of COVID reached 300,000 in the U.S. over the weekend. But with health care workers beginning to become inoculated with a vaccine that scientists say is 95 percent effective it is now possible to foresee the day when the numbers will start going down. Elderly, at risk populations will begin to get the vaccine soon as shipments are now on the way all across the country. Teachers may get the vaccine next, allowing schools and colleges to begin reopening. And by the warm days of summer, everyone who wants a vaccine should be able to get one.

The director of critical care at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens has become the first person in the United States to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in a non-trial setting. Sandra Lindsay, RN, received the vaccine just after 9 a.m. Monday as Gov. Andrew: Google

“I honestly can’t recall two independent events of such extreme importance occurring on the same day,” said David Oshinsky, a professor of medicine at New York University’s Langone Health and a historian who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the development of the polio vaccine that eliminated a scourge of the 20th century.

He was quoted in the New York Times saying it was as if one were to combine the seminal election of 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson that set the precedent for presidential contests with the day that President Dwight D. Eisenhower thanked Dr. Jonas Salk for developing the polio vaccine.

“In our bitterly divided country, Dec. 14, 2020, should remind us of who we are and what we are capable of,” Dr. Oshinsky said.

Even some conservatives and Republicans began to get onboard, as Trump’s Attorney General William “Bill” Barr announced his resignation, not for honorable reasons but because he pissed Trump off for making a public statement saying there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the election.

“William Barr, during the course of his tenure as Attorney General, diminished the integrity of his office, eroded the independence of the Justice Department, and substantially undermined his own reputation,” said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, the Democrat from Greenbelt, Maryland. “It will be up to his successor in the next Administration to restore the Justice Department to a place of independence and integrity for which Americans can have respect and in which they can have faith as the protector of justice and equality under the law.”

“This day feels like a turning point because in both cases we have reality breaking through — a legally mandated deadline to end the election cycle being met in an orderly way and a carefully reviewed and tested vaccine being brought into general use,” said Yuval Levin, the director of social, cultural and constitutional studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

“In both cases,” he added, “institutionalism and professionalism have made it through the storm and are functioning under pressure. It’s a relief, and also an indication of what we need more of in the years to come to recover our balance as a society.”

“It is a cosmic convergence,” said Benjamin L. Ginsberg, a leading Republican election lawyer who has been critical of President Trump’s efforts to overturn the vote that he lost. “And what’s good about both of the events occurring on the same day is it really can provide a turning point for a nation that really wants a turning point.”

“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have now crossed the 270-vote threshold to become the next President and Vice President of the United States,” Mr. Hoyer said in a statement. “The 2020 election is now definitively over.”

“It is time for Republican leaders who have refused to accept the results of the election to finally put country before party and end their baseless challenges to the outcome,” he added. “We have real challenges ahead, and if Republicans truly care about building a stronger future for our country and its people, they will roll up their sleeves and get to work as partners with Democrats in Congress and with the next Administration to address them with the seriousness they deserve.

“Peddling in false conspiracy theories that stoke their party’s base for partisan advantage will only do further harm to our nation and our Constitution,” he continued. “The Democratic-led House is ready to work with the new Biden-Harris Administration in January to hit the ground running and deliver results to build back better from this pandemic and meet the many challenges we face as a nation. Now is a moment for unity and healing as we prepare for the hard work ahead.”

While Trump continued his false claims about the election and still refused to concede, even in the face of an overwhelming Electoral College loss of 306 to 232, Mr. Biden emerged to try to pivot the country forward by talking about his victory publicly.

“Now it’s time to turn the page, as we’ve done throughout our history,” he said. “To unite. To heal.”