They were wrong to assault the Capitol.
But, what else could they do?
It’s been the policy of some political factions for years to tear at the fabric of the American Dream, to say it isn’t ‘real’, that it’s ‘not for all’.
Our Flag is desecrated and disrespected, …
…through ‘art’ displays protected as free speech,
…by kneel-down protests at sporting events,
…by secondary school leaders and students who pull it down to replace it with other banners,
…by school boards who remove the requirement for a Pledge of Allegiance in morning classrooms and the lessons that tell why it’s important from curriculums,
…and by ‘We the People’ who elect School Board members.
Riots abound for months in our streets,
…and City executives and legislators give it a ‘pass’ as free speech, while Main Street burns,
…and State executives and legislators don’t hold City leaders to task for law and order,
…and State leaders further prevent federal support for quelling the riots.
Election laws are bypassed, ignored,
…by State executives,
…by State and Federal Courts,
…and by State Legislators who refuse to hold the executives accountable.
Civil authorities fail to follow laws and protocols during a national and international crisis. The executive actions shut down lives across the country, decimate the economy, prevent people from earning a living and carrying out their personal responsibilities.
Then, in Michigan, a different protest takes place. A governor is threatened, and a State House is occupied, and suddenly there is a problem.
And now, ‘shock and awe’ that another protest attacks the nation’s Capital.
We are surprised because we do not know our own history. The President-Elect states this is ‘unprecedented’. Legislators and corporate business and organizations are ‘shocked’ and demand action.
Remember,
Boston Riots, March 5th, 1770. The first ‘patriot’ rioter killed was Crispus Attuks, a black man.
Boston riots that trash docks and shipping, December 16th, 1773. Today we call it ‘The Boston Tea Party’ and we had modern political faction take on that name.
Lexington and Concord, April 19th, 1775. ‘Farmers with pitchforks’ and muskets (lots of muskets) harass a military column sent to confiscate weapons in the Massachusetts countryside.
Militia Raid on a Federal Armory at Harper’s Ferry MD, October 16th – 18th, 1859. Perpetrators were hung for sedition. The leader’s name was John Brown, hero to slaves, pariah to the politicians. Who was the man who lead troops to quell the riot? One Robert E. Lee, who’s memorial statues have been recently removed, displaced, and destroyed from our public venues, including the Capitol building that was breeched January 5th, 2021.
Bonus Army Protestors removed from the Washington Mall, 1932. George Patton was directed by Douglas MacArthur to use federal troops to remove 17,000 war veteran protestors from their tent city on the Mall.
Our country is built on protest and riots. Some people will only suffer the failure of the rule-of-law for so long before rising up to fight for what they believe in.
I’ve outlined offenses against our National symbols and Constitution over the past few years. I’ve compared it to the Revolution that formed this country and mentioned a key point triggering the Civil War and the Great Depression. How much longer will one political faction continue to flout the rule of law, continue to ignore the voices of the other half of the nation before the assault on the Constitution and the symbols that represent it cease?
I know of another nation that fought over taxation, economic prosperity, and the philosophy it should live by. It fractured into two nations, both which were wiped out within two hundred years. Those nations did not recover before 1400 years had passed, and a new nation, OUR nation, One Nation, Under God, stood to support it.
We are a divided nation. No longer do we ascribe to a common philosophy read in the Judeo-Christian scriptures. No longer do we teach in our schools the uniqueness of the American experiment that let’s every person seek their own fortunes according to their own abilities. No longer do we ascribe to a freedom of speech and ideas that allowed us to come to jointly believe and build this One Nation.
Until we correct and repair the foundation, we will remain divided, and as both that Judeo-Christian scripture reads and one great President prefigured, “A house divided cannot stand,” and this one, like so many other powerful and great nations in history, will fall to our own internal failures.
My rosary prayer intention, beginning January 6th, 2101, is that We the People will rise in support of the Constitution that binds us, that we will all choose to hold each other accountable to it, “and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,”.