The Common Enemy Unites

The last time I felt this uneasiness in my core a second airliner was piercing the south tower at WTC. It was the first time in my then young life that I realized how fragile our perceived security really is and how easily all that we have worked for can be stolen away from us by a vocal, fervent minority. I felt that way again yesterday as I watched the very shrine of democracy defiled by extremists. I hope to never experience that emotion again.

I’ve reached a point in my life at which I can fairly objectively consider my own mortality. I’m not particularly excited by it, but I can embrace it with some sense of understanding. I have begun as well to make peace with my children growing older, their features and interests dynamically shaping them on their journeys to adolescence and ultimately adulthood. I lost one of the two women I loved as “Mom” less than six months ago, and the thought of losing parents and family elders is another specter I’ve begun to stare down. All of this is a function of aging, and all of us will experience it at some point. I like to believe I will stoically continue to accept the inevitable changes on my life’s path.

What I cannot accept - indeed what I perhaps fear most - is the dismantling of our nation by fringe groups and fanatics. I cannot accept hate and corruption and violence. I cannot accept a downward spiral of the United States of America partially because we’ve achieved so much as a nation, but mostly because my children and their children will inherit what’s left. My progeny will set sail into the sea of the future facing maelstroms not of their creation, but of OUR creation as adults of the present. Our values and prejudices will shape the landscape which our youth will have to navigate. When one considers this, the responsibility we shoulder suddenly seems Hurculean. We- each one if us- is a steward of the American way of life.

The image I will forever connect to the events of January 6, 2021 is three law enforcement officers in the Senate blocking the doors to the floor with furniture and pointing pistols at the front of what would be throngs of potentially violent intruders. Had circumstance run afoul, those three pistols would have been no better than a garden hose and I’m certain the officers knew that. Yet there they were, clinging desperately to their last, unlikely hope for survival. The last stand of these three men was at once a testament to the bravery of our police and armed forces who are daily charged with defending our freedoms, and a representation of the resilience our nation has shown through trials past and present. Three individuals standing their ground against the potential onslaught of hundreds, willing and ready to fall in defense of others... in defense of democracy.

Make no mistake- I do not believe that the men and women who stormed the Capitol yesterday are inherently evil. Nor were the rioters of the previous year’s BLM protests. They’re people much like you and I who simply succumbed to the hypnosis of well-strategized psychological warfare. They are all unwitting victims of the divisiveness of contrived dichotomies. Black vs. White. Rich vs. Poor. Democrat vs. Republican. Us vs. Them. Fueled by media bias and outright fabrications they, like the three officers, were motivated to stand in defiance to what they believe is a threat to their way of life. I DO believe they are criminals. All of them. Breaking down doors and windows and vandalizing congressional offices is just as criminal as looting and burning down Walmart stores. Yet each of these acts of violence was committed by a person easily manipulated by distortions of reality - distortions created by some media outlets and even some elected leaders. Many of these media outlets and leaders benefit tremendously from the division among US citizens.

But as it turns out. the right and left may actually be on the same page. They may find common ground in a thirst for equity, justice, and security. And in a gloriously ironic turn of events, the person who is arguably most responsible for the growing division in this great nation - whose inaction in so many areas has helped to expand the political and social divide for almost four years - may have initiated a renewed sense of national unity by simply continuing to do nothing. Faced with what could conceivably be the most decisive moment in his Presidency, Donald Trump sat idle even while he watched televised images of extremists desecrating the US Capitol Building and posing a very real threat to government officials on both sides of the political fence. Four people died as a direct result of this "protest." That it took numerous advisors and even his Vice President calling on him to do something- anything to quell the angry mob descending upon the very seat of our government became the final demonstration of Trump's narcissistic unfitness for the office of POTUS. His implosion was complete when he doubled down on unsupported claims of voter fraud during a hapless, passionless call for peace seems to have at long last opened the eyes of most of his congressional constituents. By nearly all accounts the terminal exodus of Republican leaders and advisors from the Trump camp has begun - because whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you can’t claim to uphold the constitution of the USA while standing behind a guy that stirs fearful citizens into an angry mob, points them toward the Capitol building and then refuses to appeal for order when the mob gets unruly.

We have a long, long way to go, but thank heavens almost everyone can agree on this- that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are still important and a healthy democracy is key to maintaining them.

God Bless America. May we soon begin to listen to each other for the betterment of all.