This is not patriotism.

“True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.”

Clarence Darrow

For the past two days I have been trying to untangle the thoughts and feelings that have been swimming around inside me. When I saw the news that the US Capitol building had just been breached it felt surreal. How could this actually be happening? For weeks Trump has been calling upon his sycophants to come to D.C. to “stop the steal” of the election from him. It was not a sudden appearance of a large group protesting. It was planned and preparations to keep our nation’s capitol – and the sanctity of our election process – safe should have been made. We have seen the footage of the BLM protestors being gassed in front of the church so that Trump could take a photo holding an upside down bible in front of it. We know how peaceful protestors have been treated in the past year. And yet when a mob invaded the Capitol building and broke windows and stormed into the senate chamber – all of which is illegal – that same show of force was nowhere to be seen? How did this happen? But more importantly – why? Why are these two groups treated so differently? There are probably many arguments that can (and will) be made for why the outcomes were so different. But I’ll spell it out in plain language: it was white privilege on display for everyone to see. And I hope you saw it. I hope you saw it and it made you think. Thoughts such as “Why is this capitol police officer taking selfies with members of a group that just broke into a building he was sworn to protect?” “Why were other officers shown on video opening gates and barriers to allow the mob to get closer and put our elected officials in danger?”

I have never been in a situation where I felt trapped and that my life and safety were in danger. I hope that you have not either, but if you have, I hope you can sympathize with those who were trapped in the senate chamber and given gas masks as they were trying to find a way out and to safety. That happened inside our Capitol building. Not in a third world country, but in the United States of America.

The Trump supporters who have a rallying cry of saving America and being “patriots” are defending America. They are not patriots. They are not joining together for the greater good and to protect their countrymen. They are rallying together to support one man and the ideals he upholds. Those are not my ideals, and they are not those of the country that I love. They are NOT patriots.

My husband has been in the Army for almost 17 years. He has been deployed to Iraq three times. He has missed birthdays, anniversaries, family celebrations. He has fought for the rights of his countrymen to vote, to live freely, and yes to protest. He would not change that. I would not change that. But what happened on Wednesday January 6th, 2021 was not a peaceful protest. It was a riot. It was spitting in the face of our armed forces who have sacrificed so much to protect our rights to a fair and free election – which we had, and cannot be disputed with facts, only opinions. You cannot claim patriotism and then stomp on the protections and rights that have been granted you by those men and women who have given so much. Please remove that word from your mouths.

On Wednesday I was in shock. I was angry and I was sad. I couldn’t believe what was happening, and yet at the same time I was not surprised. We have had a president who has been fanning the flames of hatred for the past four years. We have been a tinder box about to explode, and on Wednesday we did. All I can hope for the future is that out of the ashes that have been left – the hurt, pain, sadness – we will rise like a phoenix. I hope we learn to be kind. To elect officials who do not incite hatred and division. That we look at ourselves in the mirror and ask how we can do better. Be better. How can we help our nation heal? And then I hope we take those who caused all of this and we grab them in our newly formed talons, and we rake them over the fucking coals of justice.