The events of January 6, 2021 will be debated and studied for years to come, and what history will say of this has not yet been written. I hope it will be marked as a turning point for our rhetoric and our conversation around politics and democracy, but I am realistic enough to know that is not the most likely outcome. Instead, it is more likely to be a signpost (albeit a significant one) along the road to whatever destination our road will lead.
I write this post not as a persuasive essay (which my son and daughter inform us daily in the at-home school days of 2020-2021 that they loathe), nor as a sermon or oratory (given that the audience is likely few or non-existent). I write this as a balm to my soul and as a personal reflection on the churning turmoil therein. If you are reading it, please understand that the thoughts that fill the page may not be well thought-out, fully-formed (or fully INformed), or beautifully worded. They are a means to a rest for my soul tonight.
The images and videos and words of today will not soon leave my mind. The pictures of law enforcement trying to dissuade an invasion of the United States Congress with guns drawn while rioters broke windows and attempted to force the doors were chilling. It was heartbreaking to witness a sea of humanity forcibly occupying the steps of the US Capitol flying many flags not bearing 50 stars for each State of our Union and 13 stripes representing the original 13 Colonies that forged an experiment in representative government, but instead bearing the name of a single person. In a way, this is a uniquely un-American image - given that the founding of America was based on the concept that power cannot be trusted in the hands of a single man, but in the will of the people. Instead, we have an armed revolt led by a mob that wants to OVERTURN the will of the people to hand continued power to a single man, moreso one duly defeated by a free and fair election.
However, I find myself disagreeing with the statements (made by President-Elect Biden and many others) that "This is not America. This is not who we are." If the past four-plus years have taught us anything, let it be that we in America ARE INDEED a nation that is deeply blind to our own faults, in ways that are sometimes intentional and others not. American Exceptionalism has always been a dangerous, double-edged sword that can hurt just as easily as help our nation. We in America like to describe ourselves in grandiose terms - the Arsenal of Democracy, the Bastion of Freedom, the Beacon of Democracy, and the list goes on. We have been blind to the shortcomings in our own systems of government and apathetic to the flaws in our national character far too often. Freedom is a wonderful thing, but so is Empathy. Liberty need not walk hand-in-hand with callous disregard for others. One's own Pursuit of Happiness need not always come at the expense of another's.
In one of my preceding paragraphs, I very intentionally noted that America's founding was built around the concept that absolute power cannot be concentrated in a "single man," because our Nation's Founders did not find it conceivable or desirable that a woman or a person of color (who was, in fact, only 3/5 of a person) could hold an office of authority over white men and landowner's. Long after the evils of slavery were recognized by many other nations in the world, the United States persisted in subjugating millions due the color of their skin. More than a century after the bloody war to settle the course of that issue, we still shamefully did not consider non-whites as true and full Americans, and still there are scars (and open wounds) of that legacy today.
While it was certainly shocking to witness the events of today, they were in no way surprising. This is what years of unchecked rhetoric and unchecked hatred and unchecked lies have wrought. Words and actions matter, and not just for the immediate effect they have in their context. There has been a systematic engine of misinformation that has been built by conservative media, elected officials, and influential personalities that has poisoned the well of our collective ability to agree on fact from fiction - beyond the normal distortion, obfuscation, and lying that has been a part of politics since time immemorial. This President, and the party that has enabled him and fallen in line behind him, have weaponized that misinformation ecosystem to spin a fabricated world based on exploiting racial and religious fault lines. They have fabricated their own reality, where the truth is a malleable tool that can be fit to whatever cause or purpose of the moment, and repeating a lie enough times in enough places constitutes evidence of its veracity. Critically, and tragically, it also allows them to paint any opposition (whether from the other major party or a dissenting voice within their own) as not just an enemy, but a seditious agent of evil.
Now, when they see what the natural consequences of their overblown rhetoric about "stolen elections" and "verifying election integrity", some (though shamefully not the President) have tried to walk back and place blame on a nation collectively - for the tenor of our discourse, for our unwillingness to let them persist with their lies and deceit, for "starting this path" with whatever opposition action they deem fitting in the moment. They do this while shirking the direct responsibility that they hold for stoking the flames with misinformation and inflammatory words, claiming that the violent events of today are to be condemned, but they are not responsible because they only spoke the words that lit the match in others.
It is a fantasy to believe that America is anything but a nation divided not into two sides of an argument or two camps with different policy priorities, but increasingly into two rival nations with wildly disparate realities.
So how does this stop? I thought the most eloquent words of the night were spoken by Mitt Romney - we must tell people the truth. Especially to those in power. Being a Patriot is not about saying the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, or having a flag on your bumper sticker, or saluting our military. Being a Patriot is about standing up for the foundational beliefs that this country was built upon -
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,"
Speaking truth to power, even at the risk of consequences to ourselves, is truly being a Patriot. Our leaders (elected and otherwise) must also be held accountable to telling the truth, as was done previously for both Nixon and Clinton. We, as citizens, must continue to engage in our democracy, but not in an attempt to win a battle or "own" the other side - rather, in an honest attempt to work together for our common good. We, as individuals, must take hard looks inside ourselves to evaluate our motives in what we do on social media, in our conversations with family and friends, in our places of business and worship, and with our children. Some blame the erosion of our polite discourse on the rise of social media, or Donald Trump, or Fox News or MSNBC or many other factors - these people invariably look for a solution by removing/changing whatever entity they assert is to blame. I feel that erosion was merely removing the gilding from the core of what has always been here in America (and in humans in general) - we have all sinned, and fall short of the glory of God - and our ideals in this nation. We just are more open about publicly sharing the shameful and offensive thoughts that were always in our souls.
To heal divisions in any way, we must also seek out and listen to those that are different than us. Only through understanding the experiences that inform the worldviews of our fellow Americans can we begin to know what IS the common good to which we all claim to be striving. We also need to engage more deeply in our democracy, both by voting and by informing ourselves responsibly about the topics we are passionate about. Finally, we should foremost remember a calling to treat others in a manner you would wish them to treat you. I'm pretty sure none of us wants to be called a fucking idiot - so why do we excuse ourselves of our own rhetoric so easily? Treating others with respect does not mean, however, that all opinions and views are equally valid - but that we must strive to divorce the value of the opinion or statement from the value of the person who made it.
In conclusion, I'm drawn constantly to the words in Ephesians 5, specifically at this time verses 6-16:
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words. It is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. 7 So do not share in what they do.8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, 9 for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. 10 Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord, 11 and do not participate in fruitless deeds of darkness. Instead, expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention the things that are done by people in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes things visible. 14 Therefore it is said, “Awake, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”15 Consider carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise people.
I pray that we, as Americans, may use this dark day to walk more wisely together into our future.
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