The saying that time heals all wounds may apply to love and forgiveness, but not so much to insurrections.
On January 6, 2021, a mob of supporters of the former President entered the U.S. Capitol,[1] an attack that “disrupted a joint session of Congress convened to certify the presidential general election results of each state and the District of Columbia.”[2] That day, offices inside the Capitol building were ransacked, Capitol police attacked, and members of Congress left to run and hide, fearful of the angry mob. Many of us saw in real time and in the months and years that followed, the events of that day.
According to a January 3, 2024 edition of the NY Times, as of December 2023, so far, approximately 1,240 people were arrested in connection with the attack, approximately 710 pleaded guilty, and approximately 170 were convicted after trial.[3]
Why is this important?
Why do we need to know this?
America’s wounds remain fresh. Our country is polarized. Even today, elected officials, some who ran for their very lives on January 6th, continue trying to convince the electorate that the mob was nothing more than a group of citizens participating in a peaceful protest. They do this with the help of sympathetic and complicit news outlets. They continue with claims that the 2020 general election was rigged. While this narrative may serve the short-term interests of certain politicians, the same ones that promise support for the insurrectionists, it is, in fact, a narrative that only undermines faith in the election process.
This campaign of distortion and misinformation to a great extent, has worked. Some still believe that the 2020 election was stolen and that the January 6th events were benign. According to a recent article in the Washington Post, “Twenty-five percent of Americans say it is ‘probably’ or ‘definitely’ true that the FBI instigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U. S. Capitol …”.[4] An October 13, 2023 article by Vanessa Williamson of the Brookings Institution noted that in recent years, “The United States is experiencing two major forms of democratic erosion in its governing institutions: election manipulation and executive overreach.”[5]
Today, January 6th, 2024 is not only the third anniversary of an insurrection at the Capitol, but it must also be a day of reflection to consider all that this country has overcome in its almost 248-year history. In this troubled world, the United States remains a shining example of democracy. Yet there are too many who are either too unwilling or too afraid to do what it takes to defend democracy.
We can do our part by voting in elections and having our voices heard. We must renounce violence, the likes of which we saw on January 6th. And yes, we must turn away those politicians who fail to accept the outcomes of free elections.
On March 15, 1965, a week after Bloody Sunday, which started as a peaceful march in Selma, Alabama where hundreds were attacked by law enforcement in the quest for civil rights, President Lyndon Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to introduce voting rights legislation. President Johnson compared the march in Selma to the American Revolution and the Civil War.[6] He said:
At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape
a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington
and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in
Selma, Alabama …
President Johnson continued his speech by invoking the words of what was a slave song[7] and later adopted by the marchers in Selma,
And we shall overcome…[8]
If “We the People” work together, I am confident that we shall overcome the January 6th challenge to democracy as we continue in our quest to form a more perfect Union.
Be Informed
Be Engaged
Be Involved
[1] https://www.npr.org/2022/01/06/1070736018/jan-6-anniversary-investigation-cases-defendants-justice
[2] https://www.britannica.com/event/January-6-U-S-Capitol-attack
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/04/us/january-6-capitol-trump-investigation.html
[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/04/fbi-conspiracy-jan-6-attack-misinformation/
[5] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/understanding-democratic-decline-in-the-united-states/
[6] https://www.britannica.com/event/Selma-March/We-Shall-Overcome-LBJ-and-the-1965-Voting-Rights-Act
[7] https://www.npr.org/2013/08/28/216482943/the-inspiring-force-of-we-shall-overcome
[8] https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/johnson-we-shall-overcome-speech-text/