US is a country of possibilities: Kamala Harris

The US is a country of possibilities, US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said in an inspiring Twitter post on Sunday.

“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last—because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities,:” she said.

The 56-year-old California senator, also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency, represents the multiculturalism that defines America but is largely absent from Washington’s power centers.

As the highest-ranking woman ever elected in American government, her victory gives hope to women who were devastated by Hillary Clinton’s defeat four years ago.

On Saturday, Harris told little children to “dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourselves in a way that others may not simply because they’re never seen it before.”

Harris on Saturday paid tribute to the women, particularly Black women, whose shoulders she stands on as she shatters barriers that have kept mostly white men entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for more than two centuries.

“Tonight I reflect on their struggle, their determination and the strength of their vision to see what can be unburdened by what has been,” Harris said, wearing a white suit in tribute to women’s suffrage.

She called it a testament to President-elect Joe Biden’s character that “he had the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country, and select a woman and his vice president.”

Her Black identity has allowed her to speak in personal terms in a year of reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism.