From: Cole Bennett
columbus
Four years after a violent mob stormed our nation’s Capitol, killing four people, causing untold damage to historic artifacts, and irreparably damaging our nation’s intolerance of political violence. It’s been a while.
January 6, 2021 seemed like a different day for me. I worked as a nursing assistant in a busy ER in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. The whole country was still in turmoil due to the effects of the new coronavirus, and I was just about to enter nursing school. Needless to say, politics was never on my mind.
Then, around noon, I looked up at the television in my hospital room. At first I thought it was a movie. When I saw the shocked look on the nurse’s face, I knew he wasn’t kidding. Then I got annoyed. How could people get so up in arms over something as trivial as politics, especially in America? I was here caring for people in need during a global crisis, and the protesters were acting like complete idiots.
Four years later, it’s as if the spirit of fools is being celebrated.
Consider the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s late CEO Brian Thompson. His excuses for the killer’s actions have permeated the national conversation. The left’s obsession with the “oppressor versus the oppressed” ideology resulted in the celebration of Thompson’s death. As a nurse, I have concerns about the insurance industry, but I fully understand that murder is never justified.
President-elect Trump has had two attempts on his life so far. The first one surprised the whole world last July. Assassinations have occurred many times in our nation’s history, and I can’t even begin to imagine how deeply divided we would have been had either attempt been successful. Online discussions praising those efforts are tiresome.
Bartholomew County has similarly been subject to politically motivated threats. Let’s take the recent school board election as an example. School board candidates and members were threatened for their opinions and votes on issues.
We resolve our differences in the voting booth and in the public square. That’s what I learned in elementary school history class at school. Regardless of political affiliation, we are all Americans. January 6th should remind us of what happens when we forget.
It’s easy now to look away and say, “Well, it’s just politics.” To be honest, I don’t blame you. Our 24-hour news media floods our feeds with news that makes everyone think our country is ready to collapse at any moment. But I don’t accept that it’s politics. You shouldn’t accept it either.
