The New Year is something we should have looked forward to with hope and anticipation of better things to come, but on Jan. 6, we faced our country being attacked, not by foreign entities, but by or own people living here.
As one who has taught American history and prepared elementary school students for the Constitution test, I wonder how the history books will describe this attack on our own land.
We know how they wrote about the Civil War, revisiting it again and again and stating it to be a travesty of man against man. Today, in 2021 we are seeing a revolution, an insurrection, a civil war that is anything but civil.
We haven’t progressed much if the only way we can make our point or try to achieve individual goals is by armed and violent conflict.
Remember learning “We the people of these United States …” and what the Constitution stood for? Remember why it was necessary for this young country to set up a set of rules to live by? It was the intent that the architects of the Constitution to provide a means for people to govern themselves by.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to reread the Constitution and relearn what it says. Let’s bring back civics, a course I had in seventh and eighth grade. I didn’t realize how much I learned from it until I watched the news of past couple of weeks.
This column is not intended to chastise anyone, but to express my feelings as I believe everyone has the right to do. What I do feel is the distaste for the methods of expression chosen by some and wonder how they can be in violation of what we were taught in our school years. Words can hurt and often do, but what I viewed as intentional harm to people and the capital on Jan. 6 does not merit any defense.
On Jan. 20, there will be a new administration in the White House, maybe your choice or not, but one we must all learn to live with. Let us respect the government offices and those who are in them, whether you like them or not.
Try to be part of the solution and not the problem. There are already enough problems. Let us all try to be safe; that is what I want for you and me.
