This is Not Who We Are
By
Albert B. Kelly
As so often is the case when something of a historic nature occurs, it takes time to fully digest events and put them into some type of context and gain some larger understanding or meaning. That is different than our knee jerk reactions. React is just what we did in witnessing what happened in our nation’s capital on January 6th when the heathen entered the temple of our democracy and defiled it in the name of patriotism.
The reaction which was a mix of shock, fear, and deep concern on the part of most reasonable and decent people who, regardless of their politics, still believe there is great value in the rule of law and in the Constitution. Some cheered. The immediate cry from leaders and many citizens was “this is not who we are as a nation” as we all watched the images of rioting on our various screens.
But with the passage of a few days, I think we have to wrestle with the fact that what we saw on January 6th is exactly who we are and exactly what we’ve become. Over the next several weeks and months the emotions of the moment will give way to more reflective moments and as that happens, my hope is that we all carefully consider what is at stake in this country, nationally but also at state and local level.
I say that because what happened on January 6th at the Capital building is what happens when you lance the boil of hate and rage that’s been stoked over of the last few years and the pus that shoots out when it all comes to head and explodes is exactly who we are at the moment. It took time for the pressure to build and we let that pressure build in a hundred ways- on Twitter, Facebook, in the false equivalence of certain news coverage and in what we’ve tolerated hoping the fever would break and the infection would quietly subside. But it didn’t and it won’t.
So what will we do going forward? What thoughtful decent people will step forward to enter public service if this is how it is going to be? Everyone I encounter says they want honest, wise, selfless, diligent, people of integrity in elective office and in public positions. But if January 6th is how it goes from here on out, we’re in deep trouble.
It’s not just at the national level. Consider the Richmond, Virginia Councilwoman who had a mob of 200 outside her house this summer toting guns and yelling “burn it down” or the public health officials in Idaho who couldn’t convene remotely because protesters were banging on the doors of their homes. The mayor of Dodge City, Kansas resigned after getting death threats because she supported wearing masks in her community. We can’t forget the plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan’s Governor.
We can barely imagine what would have happened to Vice President Mike Pence had rioters been successful in finding him and the same for Nancy Pelosi and any number of legislators in the building that day. As tragic as the deaths of Brian Sicknick, Ashli Babbitt, Rosanne Boyland, Kevin Green, and Benjamin Phillips was, it is miracle that more people were not killed.
This is the wake-up call; this is the chance we get to make a course correction. Our democracy will not just take care of itself nor is it self-perpetuating; things will not just magically work out as we go about our daily business and take it for granted. We have to actively respect the rule of law and we have to insist on fidelity to the constitution even as we struggle to apply it and even when we disagree with the politics of the moment.
Not for nothing, but we have to do a better job in educating our children in the areas of government and civics because if too many of citizens are ignorant as to how and why our government works and what their roles and responsibilities are as “we the people”, then our system won’t survive and neither will our institutions and way of life.
What happened on January 6th will be investigated through commissions and hearings and goodness knows what else. But at the end of it all, preventing the unraveling of our government and our institutions is up to us. This is not new; it’s always been this way.