Recently, members of the Mount faculty brought to my attention that The Mountain Echo has yet to write an article on why the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 was wrong. While the Echo published several articles in response to Dr. Joshua Hochschild’s controversial article, no one has said anything about what happened, except for an email sent on Jan. 11 regarding the flags at half-staff in honor of two police officers killed in the insurrection.
What happened on that fateful day was not “a demonstration about election integrity,” it was a terrorist attack instigated by a delusional man who refused to believe he lost an election. Trump went to the Supreme Court and, after they said he had lost the election, he went on a rampage demanding states to recount the vote and filed lawsuits, saying they forged votes. He lost these lawsuits and gave President Joe Biden even more votes.
What his supporters fail to realize is that they are going to be fine. Biden is not going to take their rights, jobs or pay. On the other hand, Trump’s 2016 campaign rested solely on racist and sexist policies that granted people the ability to oppress marginalized groups even further. The attack on the Capitol was a last ditch effort for a mad man to take control of the government and elect himself the ruler of everything.
I watched the live coverage of it. I watched the Nazi and Confederate flags march into the Capitol — something that did not happen in World War II or the Civil War. I watched this mob storm the Capitol building. I watched them as they broke windows and stole from the Capitol. I watched people drop down into the Senate Chamber and sit in the Vice President’s chair. I watched as they willingly filed out, not a single tear gas canister thrown, not a single rubber bullet shot, not a single person in handcuffs. I watched as they faced off with the police. I watched as nothing happened to them even though they broke the curfew.
This was not about voter integrity. This was a cult upset that their leader lost and listened as he spewed conspiracy theories about the election that were immediately debunked.
“It was almost like an anti-Black Lives Matter riot,” a faculty member described.
“It was *never* about ‘law and order,’” tweeted @MervynFoxe.
“[W]e marched because we were getting killed, y’all are rioting because you didn’t get your way… we are not the same,” another tweet by @somtochukwu_ stated.
“Storming the [capitol] building is so much more disrespectful to our military, our founders and the flag than taking a knee,” @DarwynsTheory tweeted.
“In 1968, the police swarmed peaceful protestors with clubs and teargas. They used teargas and clubs at St. John’s church so Trump could hold up a Bible. With this mob, they’re playing nice,” @StephenKing tweeted.
“Enough of this ‘this isn’t who we are, this is a small vocal minority’ rhetoric when 74 million people watched everything he did for four years and still voted for him,” @XiranJayZhao’s Twitter posted.
For the Mount to not only publish an article written by a man who admitted he attended the insurrection but to also defend their actions is basically saying “we value this one professor who participated in a terrorist attack more than all of our minority students combined.” It is a slap on the face of the students whom the Mount continuously keep assuring that they “belong here.”