Ten Score and Seven Years Ago...

My thoughts and memory of January 6th.

A picture of the Capitol I took not even a year after the historic attack.

Ten Score and Seven Years Ago…

K.L. Orion

A few weeks ago I talked about 9/11 and how almost any adult in my life could tell you where they were when they got news of the disasters. Of course, me being born nearly six years afterwards prevents me from remembering anything from that day. However, I can tell you what I was doing on another tragic day in American history. Before I answer, allow me to ask you, reader. 

Where were you on January 6th? 

I know this event didn’t even claim a small fraction of the lives 9/11 did. In fact, it’d be laughable to compare casualties from the two tragedies. While one’s death toll was in the thousands, the other’s death toll was around five. The physical damage is also laughable to compare, considering one witnessed the complete destruction of skyscrapers, city blocks, and parts of the pentagon. Meanwhile the other had some pretty bad vandalism issues. On the surface, these two events seem almost disrespectful to compare. In some ways, they are. But they both highlight important issues that should be on the minds of every American. 

9/11 represents the dangers from outside, while Jan 6th represents the dangers from within. 

So I’ll ask you again, reader: Where were you on January 6th, 2021? 

I can tell you exactly what I was doing when I got the news. I was at a choir lesson. And by “at a choir lesson,” I mean I was sitting on my bed on a zoom call with my choir teacher. I think that statement alone says something about the time period this all took place in. It highlights the events that brought our country to this point. For my entire life up until that point, political polarization was getting bad. But it increased exponentially during the 2016 election, which I am old enough to remember. Of course, considering I was in fourth grade at the time, I didn’t understand the election too well. But I did understand it enough to know it was a bigger deal than usual. 

Then followed three years of worsening polarization. Democrats and republicans could barely agree on anything, and it was hurting our country badly. It was around this time I saw normal people getting too obsessed with their political ideologies. Woke hipsters and gun-lovin’ rednecks rarely ever got along before, but now seemingly normal people were beginning to break up normal friendships based on who they supported. People were losing their kindness. Eventually, the democrats had enough of their republican president and swarms of them turned up to run for president at the start of the 2020 election cycle. That was followed by more political madness until the worst thing possible for this polarized environment happened. 

I was in seventh grade at the time. I had just gotten off for spring break. I wouldn’t attend another in-person class until ten months later. 

COVID-19. 

The pandemic, an almost science-fiction level threat, forced everyone into isolation, and nobody was happy about that. Everyone’s lives were all of a sudden directly affected by the government’s decisions, and that clearly had an impact on the two big political parties in the United States. The response to COVID-19 was honestly pathetic. So many people died unnecessarily because of partisan bickering. Conspiracies spread like crazy. Then a summer highlighting racial injustices and other injustices polarized sides even more. Protests turned violent in some cases. More conspiracies spread. A horrific hurricane season didn’t help, nor did forest fires. Then there were the murder hornets. Dear God, the murder hornets. Problems were only getting worse, and the American people wanted to do something about it. 

Luckily for them, the 2020 election was still on, and there was the chance to change things. And change things they did. A new president was elected, who wasn’t very popular but was far more popular than the previous guy. But that previous guy didn’t want to go down so easily. 

Say what you will about Donald Trump. I have many opinions on the man, and while I could go into them on this, I don’t want to just yet. Maybe some other day, but not today. What I will say, though, is that Trump didn’t want to go down so easy. He tried to get recounts. He tried to stay president. The far right certainly wanted him to stay president. Members of the radical right began spreading election fraud conspiracies. Unfortunately, these baseless claims caught a lot of attention. Radicals began to believe that their country was actually in danger from the far left, and they were willing to “protect” it. 

Now we finally get to the day. Jan 6th. I had heard that Trump called a protest to Washington DC. I heard how big of an event it was. I heard speculation of how it could turn violent. But I didn’t care way too much. After all, I was an eighth grader in quarantine. I was on a zoom call with my choir teacher when a little news notification popped up on my screen. 

“Trump supporters break into the Capitol.”

At least it was something along the lines of that, I can’t remember exactly what. 

My reaction to that news was bizarre. I laughed. I laughed out of disbelief. My mind didn’t allow me to fully realize the severity of the situation. Looking back on it, I know it sounds stupid. But that’s what really happened. Then I more or less dropped it until that night, when I went for a walk. I had to get eighty minutes of exercise every week for PE, and I did that by walking. As long as I stayed away from people, I was fine. It was a chilly winter day, but I didn’t mind. As a matter of fact, I didn’t mind anything at all until I passed by a house with a Trump flag outside of it. That flag finally made me start thinking about that headline. Were we on the verge of civil war? I thought about that idea for a while, but my mind eventually blocked itself from thinking about it anymore. It would be fine. It couldn’t be that bad. 

It wasn’t until I got home when it finally set in. 

I walked in the door of my house, done with my walk, stepping foot into the living room. My parents were home from work, glued to the television. On it were barbaric scenes that still haunt me to this day.

Images of violence, hatred, anger, and fear flashed on the news. Bright red headlines scrolled across the screen. Visible fright present in the faces of the shaken news anchors. My heart sank the moment my eyes fell on the television screen. It was at that moment that this thirteen year old kid realized the terrible implications of this event. It was terrifying. At that point, the raid was well over, but the shock had only just set in. 

Virginia, once home to the capital of the Confederacy, borders Washington DC. A few Civil War battles were fought right outside of DC. The Confederates had a few opportunities to even attempt an invasion of DC. Yet it never happened. No Confederate flag ever flew in the US Capitol building. Not until Jan 6th, when one did. At least, that’s what I was told. That story itself chills me. And on a side note, some might claim that there’s nothing wrong about the Confederate flag and it’s something about “heritage” or whatever, but I disagree. Even if you disregard the whole racial issue with it, that flag isn’t the actual official flag of the Confederate nation. It is a Confederate battle flag, meaning it is a flat-out symbol of slaughtering Union lives. It represents killing United States soldiers. It has nothing to do with heritage, it only has to do with war; a treasonous war at that. Sorry, that was a side note, but that excuse drives me absolutely insane. 

On the topic of treason, I remember the footage of the traitors. Hoards of them gathered in all sorts of Trump and far-right merchandise, like some freakish Trump-Con or something. Many carried flags. Trump flags, Confederate flags, even American flags. Then they used those flags, those American flags, to beat down Capitol Police. Those were the same people “backing the blue” that past summer. Supposedly backing the blue, at least. To me, beating them with flags and pepper spraying them doesn’t sound like backing the blue. Then they used those flags, Trump flags, Confederate flags, American flags, to break their way into the Capitol. Then they chased after members of our own government. They threatened the lives of every single person in that building that day, no matter how liberal or conservative they were. I even remember haunting photos of republican lawmakers barricading the doors from their own voters. Some freaks even brought a “build your own gallows” to hang “traitors” for their crimes. They chanted for the hanging of their own Vice President. Luckily, no lawmaker died that day. Unfortunately, tons of police officers were injured by these rioters in the attempt to protect our democracy. I thank those officers dearly. 

Eventually, the treasonous fools were expelled from the building, but not after laying waste to everything they passed through. The vandals broke and stole anything they wanted to from our own Capitol. That day was a disgrace to our country. A bunch of brainwashed sore losers nearly uprooted our government. It was barbaric. I remember watching the television that day with my parents. A Desert Storm veteran and a patriot teacher both staring in horror at the images of treachery on the screen, their confused child sitting between them. I think they were both shaken knowing that this was the America they had fought for. This was the America they were raising their children in. 

I don’t know why I have to say it but I do: January 6th was not okay. That event was appalling. The last time the United States Capitol was attacked like that was nearly two hundred seven years earlier during the War of 1812, when the greatest military in the world at that time attacked our still fairly young country. Now, a bunch of angry voters armed with flag poles and pepper spray managed to break in even after the United States had become one of, if not the greatest superpower on the planet. It is a disgrace. Unfortunately, some people consider these blind fools as patriots trying to protect their country. Unfortunately for those people, I see them for exactly what they are: traitors. They tried to overthrow the government. There is nothing remotely okay about that.

I don’t care what side you are on, left or right, violence is in no way okay to achieve something that can be solved diplomatically. I hear the excuse a lot that Black Lives Matter protests sometimes turned violent and that somehow justifies Jan 6th, but it doesn’t. Most of the Black Lives Matter protesters were trying to protest peacefully. It was a few people within these protests who turned it violent. And burning some random buildings, as horrible as that is, doesn’t even compare to trying to topple a superpower’s government. But I cannot refute the fact that some of those Black Lives Matter protests did turn violent, and I acknowledge that. It wasn’t right for them to turn violent. It was wrong. There, I said it. I condemned violence from the left side. So with that in mind, I cannot think of a single good reason someone can convince me it was justified on the right. 

Jan 6th represents the paranoia misinformation and extremist bias can create. Jan 6th represents the loss of empathy in this country. These people were willing to overthrow the United States government, throw the entire planet into chaos, possibly putting all life on Earth in danger, just for the political gain of one man. The spread of conspiracies and extremism and the lack of empathy for our fellow Americans (hell, fellow humans) led us to this wretched event. If the misinformation continues to spread, if the political gap continues to widen, then there could be more events like this in the future. Who knows? It could be democrats next. Or maybe it’ll be republicans again. Or it could be a third party. But what I know is that the divide is getting bigger, not smaller. As a matter of fact, it's fracturing. More cracks stem from the one great divide. And if this continues, we’ll have to remember a lot more days than Jan 6th. 

We need to be more careful of misinformation. But more importantly, we need to be more open and empathetic. We Americans have lost our empathy. Without empathy, all we’ll do is fight. We cannot afford to fight. For our country’s sake, for the world’s sake, we need to unite. We need to work together. I don’t care what side you’re on. I don’t care if you’re left or right, up or down, forwards or backwards, or wherever on the spectrum. Next time you see a polarizing issue, be empathetic. Think of how this affects the side you disagree with. Maybe you will see why others believe the way they do, and then begin to understand it. And always remember, polarization will be our downfall. Unification will save us.