January 6

January 6

Four years ago at this hour, supporters of Donald Trump, convinced by him that Joe Biden stole the election he lost, were storming the Capitol.

I can still see the images of people carrying American flags and wearing MAGA hats, running over the grounds of the Capitol, breaking through barriers and storming the steps, using all kinds of tools to break windows and force doors open, cheering and shouting like they were at a wrestling match.

I was sickened then, and I am sickened now, just thinking about it.

I’m also angry.

Nobody likes to lose. Every single person who runs for any office and loses feels it. I have heard candidates talk in retrospect about how they descended into a deep depression after a loss. I’m sure Donald Trump was depressed, but what he did with his anger and his depression is unconscionable.

He encouraged people to travel to Washington and to be ready to march to the White House. It was well-planned, and he was successful in getting people from all over the nation to do his bidding. He called them patriots. I called them thugs and traitors, and my categorization has not changed and will not.

They stormed the Capitol, beating police officers and breaking into the offices of lawmakers. They spread feces on the walls, and put their feet on the desks of lawmakers they didn’t like – and threatened to hang Vice President Pence. (https://dean.house.gov/2022/1/jan-6-capitol-insurrection-a-year-later-congress-members-reveal-details-of-their-escape)

One woman, Ashli Babbit, was shot by law enforcement as she was breaking a window (https://www.nbcnews.com/video/capitol-shooting-that-led-to-ashli-babbitt-s-death-captured-on-video-99180613572) and she is now hailed as a patriot and a hero by MAGA. She is neither.

The defeated president was in on it, and he sat for hours, watching the destruction on television before finally calling it off. He was hopeful that the violence would turn the tide on the election results, and he sat in front of a television, watching. He knew what the violence was about, and he waited with bated breath, hoping for his desired result for the outcome. “Will be wild,” he said in a tweet. (https://www.npr.org/2022/07/13/1111341161/how-trumps-will-be-wild-tweet-drew-rioters-to-the-capitol-on-jan-6)

He said then and he says now that it was a “day of love.” Hardly. It was a day that will “go down in infamy,” as destructive in its purpose as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

I remember trembling with anger when I read that the administrator of the General Services Administration refused to sign a letter that authorized President Biden to have access to funds he would need to govern. Her name was Emily Murphy, and she refused to do her job. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-gsa-letter-biden-transition/2020/11/08/07093acc-21e9-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html)

There is so much that happened on January 6 and for the four years after Trump’s defeat that it is hard to remember it all and process it. But today, Vice President Kamala Harris is presiding over the election of Donald Trump, as Vice President Pence attempted to do four years ago, and the result is that a convicted felon will be president and will be working to put people in prison merely for being his political opponent.

It is sickening.

And equally sickening is the gathering of weak, wealthy white men, ready to ruin the lives of millions of Americans as they throw around their money and privilege. They will be working to take America “back” to a time they believed was better, when white men were in control and everyone else had to suck it up and do what they were told.

This is a bad day for America. I hope there are enough Americans who love having freedom and will fight with every bit of their energy. America is the laughingstock of the world, That, Mr. Trump, is the reality we are in right now. That is what you’ve done. God help us all.

A candid observation.