Five days have passed since insurrectionists attacked the Capitol of the United States in an effort to stage a coup and reverse the results of one of the most secure, free, and fair elections in the history of this country. The seditionists failed attempt to overthrow our government was inspired by lies and misinformation about the legitimacy of last year’s presidential election and incited by inflammatory words that President Trump spoke at a rally immediately before the siege on the Capitol.
In the days since the attack a concerted effort has emerged from Right-wing media and elected representatives, who were complicit in the lie that inspired many of the rioters to attack the Capitol, to defend and somehow justify the rioters actions. In their attempts at justification, the Right has tried to equate the seditious actions of those rioters who attacked the heart of American democracy with the Black Lives Matter protestors who took to the streets of America demanding racial justice.
Let me be clear: there is no equivalency between the two.
There is simply no way to equate the mob of privileged, primarily white, anarchic agitators incited by the President and driven by some false illusion of victimhood storming the Capitol of the United States by force and the overwhelmingly peaceful protests of a diverse cross-section of Americans who marched in the name of racial justice. The former, fighting to overturn the free will of the American people through the most undemocratic of means in defense of an indefensible man whose bruised ego couldn’t accept the reality that he lost, and the latter, marching and protesting for their LITERAL LIVES.
There is no equivalency.
None whatsoever.
Don’t be gaslighted.
Do not let anyone tell you anything different.
Anyone who attempts to equate the two, who tries to dismiss the actions of those who desecrated our most sacred house of democracy in the most clear act of insurrection and sedition this country has seen in over a century as anything less than the unlawful actions for what they were – are quite simply ignorant, on the wrong side of history, and in denial of reality.
Those who stormed the Capitol Wednesday did so in defense of a singular man, not democracy, not our lives, not our rights, and damn sure not the United State of America. They carried out this insurrection to show their full measure of fealty to a narcissistic man who has never valued them as anything more than pawns in pursuit of his own interests. While they were literally willing to die, as some did, for their chosen leader, he showed no such deference for them, even going so far as to insult them for looking “low class” while carrying out a domestic terrorist attack against the United States of America in his name.
What a sad day it is in America when not only do we see the Capitol overrun by terrorists incited by the President of the United States, but then see people attempt to equate their actions as somehow equivalent to those of Black Lives Matter protestors who were literally marching – and not to mention arrested, beat, gassed, degraded, demonized, and killed – for their lives. True patriots who have every right to feel legitimately aggrieved that were protesting so that this country, that has never shown the same love to those protesting as they have for it, might finally live up to the values upon which it was founded.
What a sad day in America.
Four days later, I am still heartbroken for America, and while my tears of rage have dried I am no less angry with what happened to a place I once knew well.
Blue Ink 