The other night, as I watched NY Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez describe the harrowing events she went through on 1/6/2021, like most decent people, I was horrified.
I’ve often told someone that unless you were present for a traumatic event, you really can’t understand what the folks who were actually physically there, went through – what they felt – the trauma they will deal with for, likely, the rest of their lives.
Every time, I’ve described the events I went through on 9/11 to anyone who wasn’t there, folks would respond with “Oh, I know what you went through, I watched the whole thing on TV.”
No. No you don’t understand. Unless you were physically in downtown NYC that day, you may have felt fear, confusion and anger, but you really don’t have a clue what it felt like to not know whether you’re ever going to see your family again, to sleep in your bed, to see your front door. You just don’t know that feeling. You can’t grasp that fear, that gut wrenching, mind-numbing, absolute fear. You don’t really know what it’s like to have your instincts kick in. To, in the moment, not even realize how scared you actually are. Or, how after you’re safe, and are in a position to process everything you’ve experienced, realizing, “holy, shit, did I really go through all that? How the hell did I even get through it?”
You may have experienced fear for those you loved who may have been there, but you weren’t there. You don’t know what THAT felt like.
And that’s what I felt when I heard AOC speak her truth.
I have no idea what she went through that day. I watched, as most of us did, on TV, as an angry mob attacked the Capitol. I was shocked. I was angry. I was stupefied. And, yeah, I wanted their blood and the blood of anyone who gave them the idea they had any right to do that. But I have no idea how it felt to be inside that building, hiding, knowing with ever fiber of your body that if the wrong person got a hold of you, you very well may end up dead.
I remember after 9/11, the way the country came together – despite political affiliation or beliefs – how we were collectively in mourning – how we were collectively pissed off at the people who did this. And while the perpetrators of the attack were all dead, the folks that sent them there were not – and we wanted those mother fuckers really bad. We wanted them SO badly, we started two wars to try and find them – one under false pretenses, even. We killed the guy who sent those people there. We’ve captured the folks who helped in the planning of it. It’s been 20 years since 9/11 and we STILL haven’t ‘let it go’ – and we really shouldn’t. Because we were attacked. The country was traumatized. People are STILL mourning those they lost in those attacks.
“Never forget” is an apt sentiment when folks attack you.
So why should we forget what happened on 1/6/2021?
Why the hell should we ‘let it go’?
We shouldn’t. There was an act of sedition. An insurrection. An attempt to overthrow the very Democracy we all claim to hold so dear. And while only one of the folks who perpetrated this crime is dead, and many are in custody, why shouldn’t we go after the folks who sent them there?
Unity?
Bullshit.
How do you ‘unify’ a country by letting those who incited an insurrection off without any consequences? How do you ‘unify’ a country by letting people who incited an insurrection know that they could get away with it, giving them an opening to do it all again – this time with a leader who isn’t a complete moron at their helm.
If a member of your family, say, one you didn’t agree with, decided to rob your home, because they felt you had something they wanted and it was unfair to them that you, despite earning what you have, had whatever it is they didn’t have, if they, along with some of their friends, wrecked your car, smashed your windows busted down your doors, looking to steal what you worked so hard to earn, would you just ‘let it go’?
And if they then told you, they were encouraged to commit that crime, by say, the head of their branch of the family tree, and they got money for weapons and travel from another member of that branch, would you let those people go?
If people aren’t held accountable for their actions, they will simply do it again – and next time they could succeed. Not in just overrunning our democracy, but they actually could kill more than just one brain-washed, deranged, asshole who tried to climb through a window to get to Mike Pence, or Nancy Pelosi – to kill one or both of them – because she was told they were enemies of the President she loved so much she was willing to kill for him.
This is insanity. This idea that we should just ‘let it go.’ We didn’t ‘let it go’ when, long after she’d given up her position as Secretary of State, the senate tried Hillary Clinton for Benghazi – and then all but buried the news when their investigations concluded that neither she, nor the Obama administration, were at fault for what happened there.
We didn’t just ‘let it go’ when Charles Manson sent his deranged cult members to murder innocent people. That cult leader died in prison, and he never murdered anyone. But he incited the murderers – and he paid for that crime, as well he should have.
So please, miss me with the ‘let it go’ crap. Yes. This country is hurting. We need bold legislation and funding to get us through yet another post-Republican administration crisis – and we’ll have that. The Senate will just have to do something it hasn’t done in years – work. They’ll have to not take random ‘recesses’ only to be called back to vote in yet another conservative judge, pass $3 trillion tax breaks for the wealthy, or hold another Benghazi hearing. It’ll be a change for them, I’m sure. It’ll be hard, but the Democrats are in charge, and I’m guessing their itching to actually do something they haven’t been able to do since McConnell took over – work for the people they represent.
And the threats coming from the likes of Lindsay Graham like “the Democrats better not call witnesses or we’re going to call in the FBI”? Hysterical. Please, do. Call in the FBI. Call in the DOJ. Please let us hear what they have to say about how they’ve been telling you all for two years that White Supremacists and the Q-Anon crew were the biggest national threat to our security and how Trump’s rhetoric was egging them on and empowering them.
Please, let us hear ALL the pieces of shit who stormed the Capitol tell us how they were ‘invited by Trump,’ and how when Trump told them he’d ‘see them on January 6th – it’ll be wild,’ they knew there’d be some violence – and how when he told them to march on the Capitol and that he’d be right there with them because if they don’t fight, they’ll lose their country, after two months of hearing the big lie about how the election was stolen from them, an election, mind you, roughly a third of those assholes DIDN’T EVEN VOTE in – they took it as ‘storm the Capitol’ – because that’s EXACTLY what he meant. Please, let us hear them tell us how his expression of disappointment in Mike Pence, and his abject hatred of people like AOC and Pelosi, led them to believe they’d be rewarded by him if they got rid of those problems for him.
Those aren’t threats to those of us who want to see these assholes pay. They are only threats to those who know they’d be implicated in these crimes. Who knows what witnesses will say about not only Donald Trump, but Lindsay Graham (who called the Georgia Governor to try and get him to not certify that state’s votes), or Ted Cruz, or Josh Hawley?
So bring that shit on. But don’t tell us to ‘let it go.’ Everyone who had anything to do with the events on January 6, and all the lies they helped spread, should be held accountable. Whether it’s via legal action, or whether it’s via campaign ads where their words, and actions, can, and will be, used against them in the court of public opinion.
What happened on 1/6/2021 didn’t have to happen. But the people who made it happen need to pay for it. Once they do, maybe we will finally ‘let it go.’
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