Lies. One big, fat lie, to be precise, led a raging, bloodthirsty, mostly white mob to an assault in the nation’s capital.
Incensed by hate and screaming bloody murder, they stormed the hallowed temple of Congress with fists and poles on Jan. 6, 2021, beating and bruising the blue and leaving a trail of carnage and a crimson stain that continues to threaten this fragile experiment called democracy.
In the mob members’ own words, they sought to “hang Mike Pence.” Rambled through the U.S. Capitol corridors with gnashing of teeth. Sought to prevent the peaceful transition of power of the office of the U.S. presidency. Rifled through desks.
Smeared feces inside the Capitol. Urinated. Erected a gallows and noose. Defiled democracy in brazen, full-throated defiance.
And, in so doing, these self-described patriots, toting the American and Trump flags, spat in the face of freedom, justice and equality.
All of this on one big lie: that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
It wasn’t. It is a lie. Still.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is expected to resume its hearings on Thursday in its effort to shake out the truth.
Meanwhile, a new web of lies seems to have been spun about top-secret documents taken by Trump upon his exit from the presidency and housed at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida. On Aug. 8, FBI agents executed a search warrant, according to court records, that revealed Trump is under investigation for possible violation of espionage laws, among other potential charges.
The most frightening thing is that so many today would rather believe a lie than the truth.
Indeed, the Jan. 6 mob’s unpatriotic miscreance and the underlying forces behind the insurrection remain a threat to us all. Midterm primary victories of Trump-backed candidates are proof the lie is alive and well.
It is also evidence that a lie paired with hate is like setting a torch to a bone-dry bed of hay. Proof that racial hatred blended with the threat and fear of losing power can be fertile ground for lies. That the greatest threat to America is not outside but within.
And it is clear that America’s tolerance and appetite for hate and violence under the guise of so-called righteous indignation in pursuit of so-called justice fueled by a lie has historically led to white mob action.
The scars upon the souls of Black folk bear witness. The faces of the Jan. 6 mob bear a striking resemblance to those captured in James Allen’s “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America.” Their faces — men, women, children — glow with arrogance and deep satisfaction as they stand before a fresh kill: a dangling Black body, lynched and charred.
A trail of tears was inflicted by white night riders who terrorized southern Blacks after the Civil War. The murder of Emmett Till and Carolyn Bryant’s lie also bear witness.
And yet, in all of the injustice and hate suffered in a nation where Blacks were once enslaved, where freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are still infringed upon or denied, where Black people are still dehumanized and asphyxiated by a white cop’s knee pinned against our Black neck, we still believe in America’s brightest truth and promise.
If any group might ever be justified to attack the U.S. Capitol, it would be African Americans. But we don’t. Instead, we come, time and again, seeking to secure promises for far too long denied. In the Million Man March on Oct. 16, 1995, Black men came to and left the Capitol in love and peace.
I am reminded of this as I also reflect upon the 250,000 demonstrators who descended on the nation’s capital 59 years ago, for the March on Washington. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others spoke of change, justice and a brighter day in America.
Today, America still stands at the crossroads. To choose to move toward love or toward hate. Toward community or chaos.
But first she must choose truth over a big, fat lie.
#JusticeForJelaniDay
