It wasn't a peaceful transition of power at all

We have to stop telling ourselves these dangerous myths

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It wasn’t a peaceful transition of power at all.  It happened exactly two weeks after a battle was fought on the steps and within the halls and chambers of the Capitol with an armed mob which carried out an armed insurrection against the government of the United States.  It was a battle fought against forces which attempted to bring down our democracy by stopping the transition of power we witnessed yesterday.  It was enough of a threat that Washington was transformed into an armed camp practically overnight to defend against another attack. It was a battle fought not only to retake the Capitol building and restart the certification of Electoral College votes, but to defend our democracy.

The attack on the Capitol is still under investigation by the FBI, the Capitol police, the Metropolitan Police, the ATF and the office of the Washington U.S. Attorney, so the inauguration took place at an active crime scene.

The Capitol building, and much of downtown Washington D.C. was surrounded by more than 25,000 armed soldiers, on guard against another attack by racists and extremists inspired by Donald Trump.

In effect, the scene of President Biden’s inauguration yesterday was the scene of an armed conflict, a battle that produced five deaths and numerous other casualties.  They call Gettysburg a battlefield, Antietam a battlefield, Shiloh a battlefield, the sites where the Civil War was fought.  Well, now we have a new site of conflict in what President Biden called an “uncivil war”:  the United States Capitol is a battlefield, too.

We must stop telling ourselves the myth that we had a peaceful transition of power, or the myth that we are a free people, or the myth that all men are created equal, or the myth that this country is a shining city on a hill to the rest of the world.  We didn’t, we aren’t, and this country isn’t.

Amanda Gorman’s marvelous inaugural poem reminded us that…

“We've learned that quiet isn't always peace

And the norms and notions

of what just is

Isn't always just-ice

…

It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,

it's the past we step into

and how we repair it.”

We had to fight as voters to regain our democracy, and we had to fight at the Capitol to make it work, and we had to stand guard yesterday to keep it.  The fight is not over and we have much to repair, that is for sure.