Remembrance is unavoidable. Unity? That’s improbable.
Do you know someone who attended the Jan. 6 protest rally at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.? Has your view of that person been diminished or enhanced by their participation in that now historic and infamous demonstration?
I know a handful of area residents who were there. All but one of them insist they attended only the peaceful rally near the Capitol, not the violent assault to enter that building. Has it been a challenge for you to differentiate between the two groups of demonstrators? Peaceful assemblage is a core tenet of democracy. Armed sieges under the guise of patriotism is a core tenet of radicalism.
“Anyone who can do that for an idiot, is an idiot,” a reader told me last week.
She contacted me to identify one of her neighbors who attended the Jan. 6 protest.
“He is dumb enough to brag about it on Facebook, saying how he got into the Capitol, blah, blah, blah,” she said. “Oh, did I mention he is a lawyer?”
I’ve heard from other readers who identified their neighbors or coworkers or fellow church members who attended that rally-turned-insurrection. In a previous column, I identified a 57-year-old Beverly Shores business owner who was there, and who was publicly proud of his participation.
“This wasn’t a mob or rioters by any stretch, as the media keeps calling us. It’s not true,” he posted on Facebook.
Afterward he told me, “I’m just searching for truth.”
He has since changed his mind about his personal participation in that rally and his public search for truth.
“Please don’t mention my name or where I live again in your articles,” he told me.
Too late for him. A Jan. 16 story in the Washington Post mentioned his name, and my column, under the headline, “The insurrectionist next door: A new source of suburban unease.” One of his neighbors reported him to the FBI, according to the story.
“Back in the quiet, well-to-do neighborhoods of America, the constitution of the mob raised unnerving questions. Do I know any of these people? And: Is anyone I know capable of this?” the story asks. “It might have been the guy a few houses down who always keeps his lawn immaculately mowed. Or the woman across the street — the one who was always getting in trouble with the homeowners association. Or maybe the man down the block, with whom they’d always politely change the subject whenever politics came up. The insurrectionist next door.”
It makes you wonder how many insurrectionists, or potential insurrectionists, live in your neighborhood. Take a look around and I’ll bet you can count a few. But should we?
On a related challenge, we need to differentiate which event they attended or supported: the rally, the protest, the assault, the coup attempt, the insurrection, or the armed act of domestic terrorism? Our terminology defines who we are and how we view what happened.
As I wrote in an earlier column, “These weren’t left-wing radicals posing as President Donald Trump loyalists to advance a national narrative that all of our president’s supporters are anarchists. No, most of these rioters were everyday Americans … who got caught up in a movement, then a moment, then a mob.”
Most of the Trump-branded insurrectionists were armed with weapons, pipes, plans, hatred and proud shouts of “We’re patriots who love Christ!” As I’ve said for many years, I have no interest in their brand of patriotism or their idea of Christ.
There are more than 140,000 photos and videos on file to illustrate — and incriminate — their attack on democracy through a directed, coordinated, premeditated assault. Their act of sedition and conspiracy was inflamed by their pledge of allegiance to their political deity, President Donald Trump, who has since been impeached, again.
“We will never concede,” their outgoing hero told them at his rally.
The federal oath of office states, “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
Remember when we believed that the most serious threats of domestic terrorism came from Islamic extremists or mentally-ill mass shooters or foreign-born enemies? Well, not this week as we witness the ceremonious transfer of presidential power. The threat is from within. We are the enemy.
The FBI has issued multiple warnings as federal and state officials brace for possible security breaches or violent assaults at all 50 state capitols on Wednesday, Inauguration Day. The agency is seeing an “extensive amount of concerning online chatter … about a number of events surrounding the inauguration,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
National Guard troops have been camped out inside the U.S. Capitol building in advance of the ceremony, which has been dramatically scaled back from previous inaugurations.
President-elect Joe Biden’s inaugural committee announced that it is hosting a national memorial at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Chicago time, to remember and honor the lives lost to COVID-19. The committee invites cities and towns across the country to join in “illuminating buildings and ringing church bells in a national moment of unity and remembrance.”
A committee spokesperson said in a statement, “The inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris represents the beginning of a new national journey.”
Every presidency begins a new national journey. Obviously, we’ll be recovering for years to come from our last four-year journey of selfdiscovery and self-destruction. It taught us many truths about ourselves and our nation.
Remembrance is unavoidable. Unity is improbable.