We all watched with horror as our Democracy was attacked on January 6th. Many speakers and writers have addressed this coup with much more eloquent and incisive words of outrage than I can muster. I was stunned into silence and my outrage choked me. I have kept a scrap of a Harpers Weekly cover on my refrigerator for many years, at least 20 years. The quote on the cover, by Verlyn Klinkenborg referred to anti-abortionists, but it has continued to speak to me on many political and social issues over the years. The quote comes from his article “Violent Certainities”:
The more I watched…, the more I understood that there was something
terribly hard in these people, a ferocious, alienating certainty. There is a
look that the human face assumes when the mind stops considering variables….
And that is what I saw last Wednesday. This “ferocious” certainty is not the truth. It is based on conspiracy theories or the word of a deranged leader. Let’s be honest, this IS who we are for a large minority in this country.
This week more news of violence. Last week, several Republican senators refused to wear masks as they were confined in close quarters with their Democratic colleagues, everyone in fear for their safety. Obviously the “safety” of their colleagues was not a consideration for these Republicans. So far 3 Democratic Senators have tested positive for Covid. More evidence of “violent certainities” that put others lives in danger. The far right mob beat and killed , smashed windows, trespassed, vandalized and threatened to kill enemies defined by Trump. The Senators refusal to wear masks is another violent act.
911 God.
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