Wednesdays are my days in town.
Last week I had left for my rounds after last week’s blog had been posted a bit before 1000PST. I stopped by the bank, collected fresh produce to replenish the pantry, picked up a senior lunch in Mt Shasta, gathered Paul from the church where his father was doing some Deacon work, did some shopping (Ray’s), picked up some chicken feed, did some more shopping (Grocery Outlet), went by the library drive thru to get the books being held for me, and got home around 1700. Mark was busy fixing dinner and had his phone radio (?) on as he does when he is cooking … but he wasn’t listening to (watching?) one of the shows he usually has on. I wondered at that, but didn’t ask.
Then live reporting about the ratification process of the electoral votes caught my ear and I turned to him, probably with a quizzical look on my face. It was after 1700 PST which would be 2000 EST which seemed a bit late for Congress to still be dealing with that duty. I must have said something like “Are they still at it?” because he said “Haven’t you heard?”
He then brought me up to time on the rioting invasion of the Capitol building.
Flabbergasted doesn’t begin to describe my reaction. I am still trying to sort out all I heard and am still hearing.
I remember seeing my Daddy cry while listening to the reports from Pearl Harbor … an attack by a foreign power. This was an attack by Americans … by some professing to be doing G-d’s work … by armed combatants prepared to take prisoners.
I still have no words to describe how I felt and to a certain extent still feel.
The pictures were horrifying. I couldn’t imagine it was true.
I continue to be horrified by the fact that so many Americans support the attack, feel those desecrators were justified, are using weird statements of support for the lies told in the past (like a statement from some small place in Italy that they have proof the election was fraudulent), and are continuing to accept lies told by the President. Some of those Americans are people I know and knew them to be good, honest, moral people … at least in my interactions with them … but who continue supporting a President inciting sedition and terrorism and those acting on the President’s instructions. I thought I knew the people I know would never approve of amoral, corrupt, traitorous behavior.
At least I thought I knew …
I can’t grasp the idea that someone I thought I knew is not only not one of the silent Germans (to use an all too obvious analogy) who stood by watching while doing nothing but is actually, however obliquely, declaring themselves to be a supporter of sedition. As Arnold Swartzneger, who experienced the fallout from the original night of infamy, has said …
“6 January was our kristallnacht”.
I have now been alive through two blatant, destructive attacks on our democratic Republic … one foreign and one domestic.
I am angry … I am disappointed … I am amazed … I am confused … I am frightened … I am hopeful … I am disillusioned … I am sad …
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Even the weather has been sad. It rained , hard, all day yesterday and it has been windy and rainy already this morning. The Eddys to our south are in clouds.
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There are those who are up-in-arms at the “censorship” of the President and his followers. They cite the “Freedom of speech” amendment. It is my understanding that treason and incitement to riot are exempted from that “Freedom”.
I think the following statement is appropo in reference to the “censorship” being decried. I weep for the souls of those being denied a platform. As is said …
Writing is the shaping of letters to represent spoken words which, in turn, represent what is in the soul. The Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun
As I write this, the US House of Representatives is acting on a bill to impeach based in part on the President’s words, both written and spoken.
So … ‘til next week …