Imagine one day you're at home when suddenly you notice a whiff of something burning. You hunt around for the source, checking every room. Everything looks fine. But it happens again and again. Then one day you hear an ominous crackling from one of the outlets, and suddenly a flame starts inching up the wall as you watch in horror.
Frantically you grab your phone and call the Fire Department, and just in time they get there and put out the fire. Phew!
As you're standing out on the lawn, breathing a sigh of relief, the Fire Chief approaches you. "You were lucky this time," he says gravely. "But if you don't make some basic repairs, it's going to happen again, and you may not be so lucky. Here's what caused it - "
Would you cut him off mid-sentence and walk away? Somehow I think not. You'd want to know everything you need to do to make your home safe to live in again.
Let's take that image with us and flash back to January 6th, 2021, when our country stopped in its tracks to see our Capital, and our democracy, in flames. I never in my worst nightmare would have dreamed I'd live to see a mob crashing through the doors of the Capital and hunting down our Vice President and our legislators. A noose hanging outside, a crowd beating police officers to the ground, the election process brought to a halt as congressional aides flee with the ballot boxes - and at the urging of our own President. Yet it happened, and it was only by the efforts of a valiant few that we were saved from disaster. As it was, the damage that day has haunted us ever since.
So. I hear people say, "Yeah, so? It's over. Let's move on." Or, "It wasn't really that bad." Or, "You're just bringing it up as a distraction."
I don't know about you, but I don't think we can really move on as a country until we get to the bottom of the problem.
If you've been following the Select Committee's hearings over the past months, you've seen how this bipartisan group of lawmakers has been carefully, painstakingly asking the questions that have to be asked. They have been interviewing people from both sides of the police barricade. They've been patiently sorting through the tangled threads of how that chaotic day came about and who needs to bear the blame. Most of all, they've focused on how we can prevent it from ever, ever happening again.
Those hearings aren't easy to watch. Sometimes they chill me to the bone with fear for my country. Sometimes they move me to tears. But I show up, and I'm going to keep showing up, because I don't want the country I love to go through what we went through on that horrible day ever again.
Remember that Fire Chief, trying to get your attention? That's what these hearings are. This is how we put the fire out: fact by fact, interview by interview. Someone who knows peels back the walls and shows you the smoldering wires and the frayed connections, every lie and scheme and back-office deal, and then helps you get to work making your home safe again.
If you haven't been watching, I understand - it's hard, and you might think it's old news. It's not. We're living in a fire-trap house right now, and if we don't deal with it, come Election Day we could be watching that fire again, blazing in the halls of every state capital.
Show up. We need you.
Comments