On 9/11/2001, I sat in my office and witnessed the attack on the Twin Towers. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t imagine what would come next. Now, 20 torturous years later, America has been changed forever.
One year ago, I sat in my office watching the tragedy that was the formal beginning of the Insurrection. It didn’t surprise me. For years, I’ve closely followed the growth of fascism in the U.S. and knew that eventually, some act would send us over the edge. A year ago, I was sickened as I saw us fall into chaos.
Today, I sat in my office listening to the speeches from the Capitol, remembering that dark day. Since then, it has become darker, much darker. In the intervening year, fascism continues to grow and violence spreads. The Big Lie fosters other lies that spread outrage throughout our society. Healthcare workers who defend us from a pandemic that has killed 855,000 fellow Americans, are attacked because they tell their patients the truth about their illness and refuse to administer treatments that are ineffective and dangerous.
Members of school boards are threatened for a variety of reasons, including whether schools should teach an accurate portrayal of our history and society, or parrot racist mythology. Local, state, and federal elected officials and their families are threatened with kidnapping, assaults, and murder.
And nation-wide, there are threats and attacks against our election system, its volunteers and officials. The core of our democracy is being eroded by the Big Lie.
Today, I heard speeches that will live on in history. They will be read for their wisdom and inspiration in future times of darkness. It has been an historic day that sets us on a path towards the resolution of this existential threat. Lines have been clearly drawn.
During an hour-long recess of the Senate, Congressional Historians gathered in the Cannon House Office Building for a discussion about how history furnishes a perspective for today. Moderated by Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, noted historians Dolores Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham reminded us that in this time of danger, our history has recorded other moments of existential crisis and provides us examples of the courage earlier Americans displayed when facing an unknown future. Our history offers lessons from which we can learn and take heart.
In essence, our nation has faced threats domestic and foreign since our inception, such as The Civil War, World War II, and the fight to pass Civil Rights. In each instance, Americans faced danger and did not know what the future held. Yet they persevered and their better angels led the way. In the end, in spite of the terrible price paid, our nation had expanded all American’s rights. We came out better for the experience.
In the decade leading up to The Civil War, America had two competing realities, Slavery and Abolition. These two forces had existed from the founding of the United States. By 1850s, though, the public in the North and South had begun to discuss slavery. But then, on May 22, 1856, the abolitionist Senator from Massachusetts, Charles Sumner, was beaten with a cane and severely injured, by South Carolina, Representative Preston Brooks. This galvanized people in the North and South to take sides. In the South Brooks was a hero and his violence cheered. In the North, the Abolition movement took fire. Ultimately, the incident led to the creation of the Republican Party and the election of Lincoln. Within 8 weeks of the election, the South had begun seceding from the Union and attacking Federal forts. Thus commenced the Civil War. In 1865, after over 600,00 deaths, the Civil War ended. Slavery was defeated and millions of Black Americans were free.
For a brief period after the war, Blacks used the power of the vote to enter government, improve their economic conditions and begin to improve solidify their communities. But, within 15 years, the White community started reasserting its power by attacking the right to vote, setting in place a set of laws, now called Jim Crow. Whites used these laws and violence, to once again oppress Black Americans, after a brief shining moment. It wasn’t until 100 years later, after a long peaceful but punishing movement, Black Americans regained their right to vote, enforced by the U.S. government.
That was only 57 years ago. People my age grew up during Jim Crow and whether in the South or North, its effects were felt. For many older Whites who support Trump and his corrupted Republican Party, still carry the expectation of the privileges enforced by Jim Crow.
In the past few years we have witnessed the reassertion of Jim Crow like laws, beginning with the Supreme Court’s gutting the Voting Rights Act. Bit by bit other rights are being undermined, such as a woman’s control of her body. A belligerent minority want to turn the clock back to an earlier, brutal time. That is what the Insurrectionists and their leaders want now, to take our power by taking our vote. They believe they are better than everyone else and have the right to do as they wish.
If one American is oppressed, all Americans are oppressed.
I don’t know what the future holds. There is no guarantee that this time we will prevail and democracy survives. I think we will, provided that all of us stand firm, demand justice, protect our vulnerable citizens, and if necessary, fight. Let our voices be heard and our votes count. Let us rise and support our representatives and volunteers. Let us speak Truth against the Big Lie and its mutations, staring down those that threaten our nation.
When I was a kid, my father told me, in his ironic way, “Always tell the Truth. It’s easier to remember.” The truth must be remembered. It is the foundation of our democracy and our future.
Lies are built on sand.
“I met a traveller from an antique land,
Percy Bisshe Shelley
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
The Image
The image is a composite, the sky and flag are individual images covered by Creative Commons usage.
I manipulated both images and color corrected so that they would work together.
The Flag is by Mike Mozart, JeepersMedia, CC-BY.
The sky is by Fractal Artists, CC-BY.
The image above, Stormy Skies 2, is mine, CC-BY.