Deuteronomy4:9
However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, not let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children's children.
On January 6, 2021 I sat down early in the day, turned on the television - which I never do before the five o'clock news - and with pen in hand I was prepared to watch the official end to the Trump era and to record my thoughts for this, my blog.
That morning the Congress was to meet and the Senate was to certify the votes and proclaim Joseph Biden the next president of the United States. There was talk that certain Senators were going to object to certifying the votes from several states where Biden had won. It was going to be an interesting morning. The ceremony began with the clerk opening the sealed boxes and so the count began. The count from the first state was read and a Senator stood to object. There were no grounds for the objection, just a procedural objection. Pretty boring stuff, really.
The channel I was watching then cut away to Donald Trump making a speech in front of a large crowd. He was giving it his all, and the crowd was enthusiastic in its response. Trump was calling on the crowd to march down to the capitol, he would lead them, and they were to stop 'the steal' as he called it.
What followed next was inconceivable to me. Thousands of people were storming the Capitol Building, while their leader, Trump, was securely ensconced in the dining room at the White House watching the events unfold on television.
This past September we marked the twentieth anniversary of another momentous occurrence, September 11th. I know people who still ask 'what were you doing when...' and its been twenty years on. It supplanted the same question asked about November 22, 1963.
September 11th will enter the history books along-side November 11, December 7, and November 22. These days have one thing in common, they involve a foreign force attacking our institution of government. But what occurred on January 6th, was home-grown. We as a nation turned on ourselves. We became the ouroboro destroying ourselves.
I do remember feeling intense sadness when Kennedy was assassinated, and sadness mixed with horror when I watched the twin towers fall. However, watching the assault on the Capitol filled me with overwhelming sadness, but also anger, and lastly a feeling of despair. I have written this blog for several years now. My next entry was to be about the official closure of the Trump presidency. But I found I could not put pen to paper, could not sit at this computer and relate to you what I felt, there were no words to express what I felt.
And so it remains and will remain unwritten. One day when I can make sense of what is happening perhaps I can find the words. Until then this remembrance will have to do.
Do not forget the things your eyes have seen...
I'm just saying
