All of us who were children in the 50’s remember November 22, 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. We remember where we were when we heard the shocking news that our President had been shot down in the streets of Texas. That moment is seared into our memories and we still feel the pain deep inside us. Our childish naivety vanished in that moment. Life was real and it could be brutal.
We remember July 20, 1969 watching Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. And we heard Armstrong’s scratchy voice on the TV from 238,900 miles away, “One small step for mankind. One giant leap for mankind.” When he planted the American flag he stated, “We came in peace for all mankind.” In our homes we clapped and cheered, and we cried. We were still so young, and we were all so proud!
Those of us who grew up in the 50’s and also our children remember the horror and rage we felt on September 11, 2001. Nineteen Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four civilian airplanes. They used these planes filled with innocent passengers to carry out suicide attacks on our country as they flew into the New York City Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside. There were 2,977 victims on that tragic day. Dan and I couldn’t watch the people trapped high up in the Twin Towers leap from the flames as the towers collapsed in a heap on the ground. It was heart wrenching and sickening. We will always mourn this day.
And, now, January 6, 2021. This was a tragic day for America. Thousands of pro-Trump insurgents stormed the United States Capitol, causing it to be evacuated as our elected officials, their staff, and journalists fled and hid in fear for their lives.
We are very saddened. Our country is 245 years old. The Constitution of the United States has been the rule of law for 245 years. It has held our country together through all of these 245 years, through the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Civil rights movement, the Gulf War, 911, the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, the Coronavirus pandemic, and more.
During all these 245 years there have been disagreements and disputes between Americans over every issue, during every year of these 245 years. But the Constitution of the United States has ruled, been upheld, and respected.
On January 6, 2021 the President invited his supporters to Washington D.C. to overturn his legitimate defeat in the November 2020 Presidential election--to put himself above the Constitution. They gathered at the White House, and our President inflamed them further and told them to march on the Capitol: “We’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
The president added: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
The President’s supporters came there to be a mob, and Trump's speech to them gave them permission to storm the nation's Capitol. Many of them admitted they did what Trump told them to do. They had planned to do what they did--their texts and social media proved this--and Trump encouraged them and provided leadership for their assault on our Democracy.
They stormed Congress as the Senate was preparing to affirm that Joe Biden was the United States President-Elect. Unbelievably, several of our elected Senators and Congresspersons supported the mob by contesting an election that had no basis in fact for being contested. Those elected officials are guilty of sedition also as they provided fuel for the seditionists who stormed the Capitol.
The seditionists left the President's exhortation to violence and marched, en masse, to the Capitol building without stopping until they had breached the sacred grounds of our Democracy and defiled it with violence.
January 6, 2021 is a day that we will always remember. It is a day that we will mourn the death of Brian D. Sicknick, a Capitol Police Officer, and as a former police officer, one of my comrades in arms.
It is a day that we will be saddened that some of our fellow citizens succumbed to the rants of a delusional President, and for the first time in history became a mob that attacked our lawmakers and their staff in our sacred Capitol buildings. It is a day that we will remember that a sitting President did not uphold the Constitution of the United States.
And now, outside our home, our American flag is flying at half-staff in Sicknick's honor. Yet, almost a week after his death, the President has not yet ordered flags on Federal properties to be lowered. Is this because the President knows he is responsible for Officer Sicknick’s death, as he was killed by one of Trump’s own supporters who Trump himself encouraged, moments earlier, to go to the Capitol and "fight like hell?"
Is this how far into the gutter Trump wants our country to be that we don't even honor an officer who gave his life to protect our Democracy?
January 6, 2021 is a day that we will remember and our children will remember. And we and our children will grieve that our dear grandchildren will always remember the images, sounds, yelling, and threats that they saw and heard as the white racist mob breached the barricades and entered our wonderful nation’s Capital. This will always be a dark day in America’s history.
We know that so many of the citizens of the United States are noble and self sacrificing. Our President-Elect is this kind of man. And because of him, and because of all those with the courage to stand up to our current President and to stand up for our country, we have hope for our grandchildren’s future.
Each of us should aspire to make our grandchildren proud of us and our country.
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