Urban Lawns
In discussing the success of reducing the crime rate, Biden points out the dual edge of this sword. A sharp blade is apropos in this description considering the content of his metaphor:
I sometimes felt like a lonely voice in those years, constantly warning people that making communities safe is like cutting grass.
The Serenity of Family
The office of Vice President is one in which the official job description can be summed up in one sentence: Preside over the Senate and take over as President in the event it becomes necessary. Other than that, the job is really whatever the President says it is. Which sounds like it would not be very stressful, but, of course, that is not the case at all:
Family had been an essential escape in the five-and-a-half years I had been vice president; being with them was like flying in the eye of a storm—a reminder of the natural ease and rhythms of our previous life, and of the calm to come when my time in office was done.
Brain Cancer
Beau Biden died of brain cancer. A battery of tests is run to determine the extent of the threat and danger. The pressure overwhelms his stepmother, Jill, who coins a metaphorical nickname for the worst of all possible outcomes:
“If it’s The Monster, it doesn’t matter where we go.”
The Vice President
About that job description of Vice President. Many have spoken out about the absence of any significant significance to the position, but Biden draws upon one of his predecessors in the job to provide a metaphorical image:
A vice president is a “man in a cataleptic fit,” he once said. “He cannot speak; he cannot move; he suffers no pain; he is perfectly conscious of all that goes on, but has no part in it.”
Policemen being Policemen
In the wake of the outrage at the murder of Eric Garner in full view of the public on a street in New York, citizens rose up and protested. In the wake of the protests two police officers were ambushed by extremists. The reaction from the right wing was predictable and swift, encapsulated in the imagery forwarded by Patrick Lynch, head of the city’s largest police union:
“There’s blood on many hands tonight,” he said. He blamed all “those that incited violence on the streets under the guise of protest that tried to tear down what NYPD officers did every day.… That blood on the hands starts at the steps of city hall, in the office of the mayor.”
