As I write this, I'm still shaken, as I know you must be too, by this week's terrible events. It was horrifying to see: the crowd pushing their way into the Capitol, breaking into offices and smashing furniture. While our elected leaders crouched behind desks, fearing for their lives, they desecrated one of the most sacred places in our country. Four people died before the day was over, and the entire world saw our democracy broken open and teetering at the edge of destruction. It was a massive blow to the very heart of our nation, and it happened right before our eyes.
It was shocking. Those images will be seared into my brain for the rest of my life. That dark day will forever be part of our history: the day our democracy was invaded - not by some foreign force, but by some of our own people, egged on by our own leaders and our own President.
I'll never forget that moment when I turned on the news and froze, staring at the image of those rioters pushing through the doors of the halls of Congress. I turned cold. I just stood, staring in horror.
I don't think I realized until that moment how precious my country's government is to me.
Oh, it's not perfect, I know. Much of the time I grumble about it, to be honest. I watch the news and mutter about the inefficiency and the partisanship and how my vote doesn't seem to matter enough. But I've always taken it for granted. I assumed it would always be there. Those halls would always be filled with the hum of debate and the shuffling of paper. The wheels of the working of our country would move on. Our country would creak forward, and nothing could stop it.
Until that awful day, when we all discovered how wrong we could be.
We learned a hard, hard lesson this week. It's a lesson learned and relearned by countries around the world: never, ever take your democracy for granted. Democracy isn't a machine you install, to chug on thoughtlessly. It's a precious, fragile gift. If you don't protect it, it could be destroyed in a single day.
We learned, too, how precious it is to every one of us. It's in our heartbeat. It's part of you, like your children: you'd throw yourself in front of a bullet to save them without a moment's thought. If you're like me, the things you saw on that day broke your heart.
And we learned, as well, that America isn't immune. Even with our long history, our democratic government is just as fragile as any other nation's. Our friends across the world know this, and they watched the events unfolding in horror, praying for us on that awful day. It was humiliating and shameful, but perhaps we needed that chastening reminder. We can't afford to be complacent about the health and vigor of our government that holds us together.
We know how it ended that day, thanks to the courage of so many. Thanks to the aides who had the presence of mind to carry the ballots to safety, thanks to the courage of many of the Capitol police, thanks to the National Guard and other forces that were finally, belatedly mobilized, the mob was routed.
And the wheels of our government - our precious democracy - began to move again.
We have a lot of work to do now. We need to find the twisted minds that planned and led this attack and hold accountable every one of our so-called leaders who perpetrated the unrest after the election. We need to find out how our Capitol, the safest building in our nation, was left so vulnerable to invasion. Most of all, we need to speak out against the lies, the scorn for our country and the sense of entitlement that could leave some thinking that this nation is theirs alone.
And while I imagine many of the demonstrators outside never expected it to unfold as it did, there are others that have only been emboldened by their success. We need to move into a new, more wary, more careful democracy going forward from here.
I know we're all drained and weary from a hard, hard year, but all of us need to do some soul-searching right now. We damn well better learn from this. We need to let go, right now, of our complacency and smugness, and face up to some hard truths.
This can never, ever happen again. We should know better now. Because if it ever happens again, it could be the end of this country we love.
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