The true face of America
I saw the real face and heart of America while watching the congressional members’ remarks at the Capitol remembrance service on January 6. I heard the true humanity of these representatives speaking to all of us about their fears and emotions during the January 6 insurrection and its aftermath.
A former NFL football player, a large man of color, expressed how he feared that he would be killed by the mob and never see his children again, and his determination to work toward a better nation for them. Another member, a white naturalized American who had immigrated as a child with his family to the U.S. from a former communist country and had served as a diplomat, shared his anger and outrage at being subjected to danger by the Trump mob, as if he were back in a Mideast war zone.
Another congressional member, a woman of Caribbean extraction, shared her fears for her colleagues and the Capitol police on that dark day. Still another member, a woman of south Asian extraction, told how a recent knee replacement operation had rendered her barely able to walk to escape the mob, and how her colleagues did not rush away but stayed with her to make sure she made it out of the congressional chamber safely.
The parade of congressional faces also included an Italian-American mother and grandmother, a black woman from the south who had marched for civil rights freedom, a blonde-haired woman veteran, a white former union electrician, and a variety of members of other backgrounds and nationalities.
All of these members of Congress shared their human fears of that day but also their determination to work toward a better and more perfect Union. They are the true face and heart of America, and we must listen to their voices and not to the Trumpublican mob thugs or their leaders who trashed our beloved Capitol and soiled the good name of America on 1/6/21.
