The Disaster
On January 6, 2021, a traumatic experience occurred that would forever affect our nation’s history. A mass assemblage of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. in response to presidential victory Joseph R. Biden. Trump expressed the anger of his defeat numerous times to the media since the November election and believed there was an error in the process of counting the votes.
Trump’s fanbase is vigorous, powerful, and loyal, so whenever he feels a certain emotion, it is likely they are going to follow his footsteps. This agenda came into play when storming the Capitol. Trump’s fanbase took action in their own hands.
The Capitol was destroyed and vandalized in an attack that surprised Americans. Cameras and media networks captured various supporters climbing the building, breaking objects, sitting in the offices of elected officials and making a mockery of a key building in the United States.
A very important picture stood out to me personally as a photo was taken of a man sitting in House Speaker’s Nancy Pelosi’s office and putting his leg up on her desk. Disrespect, hatred, and crimes were forced upon all of our eyes as we watched this historic attack live. As I watched this chaotic event happen, it made me look back at a time where a group of people were expressing their own emotions on something they did not agree with. This group of people were part of the Black Lives Matter movement, earlier in 2020.
This past spring, the BLM movement caused a riot of their own as the news of the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor circulated the airwaves. When the news of the attack on the Capitol Building was first publicized, there were individuals who were comparing these two events. Reports from networks including ABC News and NY Times captured Republicans denouncing the work from the BLM movement and releasing statements saying the attack was a “protest.”
We live in a country where we have the freedom to express what we feel. However, the attack on the Capitol was a live demonstration of how the level of disrespect alive in this world today. A reaction to an election defeat should could have been handled in a more professional way, not as an ambush on a building that symbolizes our democracy as a country.
The BLM movement showed the uniting of African Americans in a time of racial inequality and injustice. It was a pursuit of peace that black people have been asking for since the early years of slavery. These situations should not be compared, in my opinion. It is insulting to the African American community. Hopefully we can continue our new year with happiness and leave all of this in the past.
