solemnly

As he stared solemnly straight ahead at the Cenotaph, was this his own commitment to public service, duty and endurance?

“I sovereign, Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonising her majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” she said, as she was being sworn in.

In an image that would haunt the former president for years, he was captured solemnly looking out of the window of Air Force One when he flew over New Orleans to survey the damage from above instead of on-the ground.

“Amber Thurman should still be alive,” he said solemnly, “and there are a lot of people who should still be alive, and I certainly wish that she was.”

As the silence began, we watched as cars stopped in the middle of a busy road and people stood solemnly in the streets in a moment that felt charged with emotion, sorrow and intense national pride.