I readily admit it. I am guilty of staging a coup. But allow me to return that revelation later.
Three days ago, a national calamity occurred which set a
precedent in the history of our great republic, a date which will be included
in the text books, alongside the most memorable events of the 20th
and 21st centuries, events such as Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy
Assassination, Chernobyl, the Challenger disaster and 911.
Our president had been speaking to approximately 40,000 of his
adherents in the park across the street from the White House, and as he reached
the conclusion of his speech, he encouraged the great throng to march on the
U.S. Capitol Building, a building which my senior class visited over half a
century ago. The president claimed he would march with them. I will refrain
from assigning blame for what occurred next, but will leave that to the
politicians.
At any rate, it seems a significant minority of the crowd
began walking towards the Capitol Building; all the while waving their flags
and screaming their cat calls. After what might have been about twenty minutes,
they finished the mile walk, and found themselves face to face with a thin blue
line of U.S. Capitol Police.
In the space of just a few minutes multiplied hundreds of
protestors, turned rioters, had appeared at the entrance of the Capitol, and it
quickly became evident that they “wouldn’t take no for an answer.” They began
to chat words which inferred bodily harm to our sitting vice president, a rope
and noose thrown over a hastily built scaffold outside the building. Now they
broke down the front doors of the building, and used clubs and police shields
to beat in the windows. And one after another, they climbed through, and made
their entrance into the rotunda.
Pt. 2
The vice president and members of congress had convened to
certify the results of the Electoral College, a date which had not escaped the
planners of the rally, and the multiplied thousands who disagreed with the
results of the vote for America’s next president, and who believed massive
fraud had taken place in the 2020 election.
It quickly became obvious that the U.S. Capitol Police
Department was undermanned, though they managed to rush the members of the
Senate and House of Representatives to a safe room, and in so doing placed
themselves in jeopardy. Who can forget the scenes which transpired in “the
people’s house?”
Fifteen or twenty members of the rabble milling around the
U.S. Senate gallery. A shirtless man, his face covered in red, white and blue
and wearing Viking horns posing for a photo behind the vice president’s desk. A
female Air Force veteran, who when she attempted to climb through a window, was
gunned down by a police officer standing on the other side of it. Another officer
beaten to death with a fire extinguisher. Countless congressional offices
broken into and trashed by the ruthless mob. A brazen 60 year old anarchist,
his feet propped up on the desk of the Speaker of the House. After the fact, a
couple of pipe bombs were found, as well as an automobile packed to the brim
with Molotov Cocktails.
For anyone who knows me, it goes without saying that I deplore
the carnage visited on this beloved structure, and the threat to life and limb to
our elected representatives, and those appointed to protect them. Before it was
over two police officers were dead, one rioter had died of what might be
described as “lead poisoning,” and three others of natural causes. Not since
the War of 1812, when the British set fire to the still incomplete Capitol
Building, had such destruction been visited upon it.
Afterward
Many have likened what happened on January 6th to a
coup attempt. (And I believe this is as good a characterization as any).
However, to return to the allusion with which I began my reminiscence.
It occurred today. I happened to visit a Facebook group page
which has as its moniker one of my family surnames. And I immediately noticed
something new and different. The page had been archived for lack of a current
administrator. And, strangely enough, I discovered that anyone who would was
afforded the wherewithal to arbitrarily assume that role; (which I immediately
proceeded to do).
A bloodless, and rather innocent coup. The only kind with
which I ever want to involve myself.
by William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending
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