You know, it’s hard to think that January 6th uprising was four years ago now. Honestly, I didn’t pay all that close attention to it, I just remember it being a particularly cold and gray January day and I was working from home, doing a Zoom Meeting from my desk where I write these words. Seems like a world ago, even though it was just last week when I — as a fully up-to-date vaccinated individual got COVID — and incredibly sick from it.
COVID did a lot of harm to the American psyche. It was a virus in many ways, not only a virus that attacked the body but also a virus that attacked the human brain and society as a whole by the mass-lock-downs that lead people to stay home, and those who had to venture out for work or necessary supplies, in pure fear. People forget how deadly COVID was before we all were vaccinated. Even with vaccination, COVID wasn’t pleasant to catch but it’s nothing like our fear of then very deadly disease before the vaccine.
People were isolated for weeks and months on end. People were bored by that summer, even if the lockdowns started to ease and we went on with out business, a bit wearing masks and knowing there was still a very real risk of death or serious disease from the virus. People were angry and frustrated, often without jobs or pay, and were in many cases literally struggling to hang on with deferred rent and credit card bills growing month after month. Things were fertile ground for public wildfires in the form of protests, disorder and even riots as people’s feelings of injustice were stirred up.
Albany like many cities was not immune from disorder during the summer of 2020. I remember walking back from a beautiful spring evening at Five Rivers and seeing the Humvees and tanks heading into the City of Albany from the Sheriff’s barracks in Clarksville to battle the disorder that had been flaring up in Albany, leading to smashed windows, spray painting, some looting and rioting, and a whole lot of mischief. Always blamed on outsiders stirring things up, but a lot of it was the good people in Albany deeply troubled by the way things were in this deeply alarming time.
The January 6th Protests, lead by then President Trump were no more of a continuation of the bad behavior. Trump had to know he was playing with fire, using his rally to whip up anger over what he called a rigged election after his 2020 loss. He had some legitimate points — elections are often unfair with rules created by the states to benefit incumbents and the party in power — but his claims of absolute fraud were asinine and not backed by a shred of evidence. He had a right to have his views heard, but also he along with Congressional leaders had a duty to protect the Capitol and the public protesting on the same day. Some disorder is inevitable with an angry crowd. You have to allow some disorder as part of ensuring people’s right to be heard and give and take a bit to keep people from feeling like their too corralled in. Too aggressive enforcement can actually spark more disorder.
I think we read too much into what happened on that cold January day what is now many years ago. Breaking glass and vandalism isn’t nice, but sometimes it’s a necessary part of change. The guady old Capitol building took some abuse, but it’s not like it ever was in that much of a danger. The protestors would have inevitably gotten chased out, the glass swept up and ordinary business resumed either later that day or the next day. Ideally, police would have deflected the protests away from the Capitol and kept the protestors, the workers in the building, and the building itself safer, but sometimes public buildings must burn in face of angry mob – to be rebuilt another day. They can certainly haul the broken glass and plaster off to local landfill, and order up new to repair it. It’s not like they weren’t going to renovate the building in a few years in the future, regardless.
I have very little love for government in general. Much less love for government office buildings, with their fake veneers of marble and glass. Behind the look is still just concrete, steel and coal, like every other big industrial building. People who work for the government, while often venerated by the politicians, are just ordinary people doing for a paycheck, no matter how valiant they make their causes seem. It would be good if he held Washington DC in less of high regard and focused more on our own lives, our families, our community needs, and stop saying that government workers and the buildings they work within are somehow any more special then corner liquor store with the smashed in glass in the ghetto.
