It is a wonderful thing to watch this community develop. Your interest, enthusiasm, and concern for this country are what keep me in this chair night after night, figuring out who did what and why.
Your interests shape what I write, and your suggestions, corrections, and the time you give to this demanding project keep me working to stay at the top of my game. Your observations, your art, your wit, and-- above all-- your friendship have kept me engaged and on an even keel in this unsettled time.
This is definitely a team effort, and I am honored to be a part of what appears to be a growing movement to reclaim America.
I wrote a round-up of 2021 last night so that we could start the new year off fresh, giving us a pristine page to write a new, better, future.
So, here we go....
[Photo from my kayak in the Fall.]
Sloan Bashinsky
Happy New Year, Heather & Crew.
I'm an Independent, who appreciates your American History facts and impressions. However, I think as long as Donald Trump is around, it doesn't matter what you and your crew and your legions of readers think and say.
Saying that another way, I think until you and your crew are as radicalized as Donald Trump and his top circle and the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6, and the MAGAs and Republicans who could care less what you and your crew and your readers and President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and the DNC and Democrats and Independents think about that DAY OF TREASON, then how you ended this epistle is not possible:
"so that we could start the new year off fresh, giving us a pristine page to write a new, better, future."
Consider a recent news article posted into a huge online politics forum and my thoughts under it:
INSIDER
Capitol Police officer says it's a 'disgrace' that Pence is dismissing January 6: 'We did everything possible to prevent him from being hanged and killed in front of his daughter and his wife'
Bryan Metzger
Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell in an interview with NPR called former Vice President Mike Pence's recent minimization of the January 6 Capitol attack a "disgrace" and "pathetic."
Gonell, who helped defend the US Capitol against a mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump as a joint session of Congress met to count the country's electoral votes, spoke about the troubles he'd dealt with in the year since the attack. That includes ongoing therapy for his mental health, injuries that prevent him from raising his left arm, and emotional trauma.
Gonell, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, criticized the recent remarks by the former vice president, whom he helped defend that day.
Speaking recently with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Pence referred to the assault on the Capitol as "one tragic day in January," a description that the former vice president has used more than once.
"I'm not going to allow the Democrats or the national media to use one tragic day in January to demean the intentions of 74 million people who stood with us in our cause," Pence said. "And I'm not going to allow the Democrats to use one tragic day in January to distract attention from their failed agenda and the failed policies of the Biden administration. We're going to focus on the future."
That's despite the fact that several rioters were heard chanting "hang Mike Pence" as they stormed the Capitol. Trump later defended those calls in a March interview with ABC's Jonathan Karl, saying they were "common sense." He added: "Well, the people were very angry."
When he was asked about Pence's comments about January 6, Gonell criticized the former vice president.
"That one day in January almost cost my life," Gonell told NPR. "And we did everything possible to prevent him from being hanged and killed in front of his daughter and his wife. And now he's telling us that that one day in January doesn't mean anything. It's pathetic. It's a disgrace."
Gonell added: "He swore an oath to the country, not to Donald Trump."
Without naming anyone, the officer also criticized members of Congress that voted against certifying the 2020 presidential-election results, as well as those who downplayed the attack.
"We risked our lives to give them enough time to get to safety. And allegedly, some of them were in communication with some of the rioters and with some of the coordinators or in the know of what would happen," Gonell told NPR. "And it makes you question their motives and their loyalty for the country, as we were battling the mob in a brutal battle where I could have lost my life and my dear fellow officers, as well."
He added: "They're telling us, 'Oh, it wasn't that bad.' It was that bad when they were running for their lives. It was that bad when we were struggling to hold them off so they could have a chance to escape to safety."
Gonell testified in July before the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot, describing the "horrific and devastating" violence he experienced at the west entrance to the Capitol, which he called a "medieval battleground."
"To be honest, I did not recognize my fellow citizens that day, or the United States they claimed to represent," Gonell said at the time.
Sloan Bashinsky
I have a very good friend, Republican, voted for Trump, U.S. Army Special Forces combat veteran. He told me after January 6 that the people who assaulted the Capitol all should have been shot dead. Yet, he did not say Trump and his crew who instigated the assault should have been shot dead.
What this former practicing attorney doesn't understand is, why Sergeant Gonell and the other Capitol police officers did not empty their guns and reload and empty their guns and reload and empty their guns into the mob that breached the Capitol? They had a sworn duty to use every means at their disposal to protect the members of Congress and the U.S. Constitution.
If Antifa had breached the White House, or Mar-a-Lago, seeking to hang Donald Trump for TREASON, his Secret Service detail would have emptied their guns and reloaded and emptied their guns and reloaded and emptied their guns.
My comment to that effect in the huge political forum was removed by the robot moderator.
Jill
Chills down my spine.
Sloan Bashinsky
What sent chills down my spine was the Capitol police did not used deadly force to protect Congress and the Constitution.
Ally
Well now. I was in the process of replying to a couple of your questions that disappeared as I was writing them. The carnage that would have been left had the responding law enforcement agencies utilized unilateral deadly force (as I was trying to get your quote right, the words disappeared) in this case would have created an armed conflict like that not seen since the 1860's. I do not share your belief that the only way "you and your crew" will write a "...new, better, future" is with becoming as radicalized as the MAGAts.
When I tried to reply to Ally, nothing happened. Then ...
Ally
To answer your question regarding the police, completely different rules of engagement. Substack has stolen three replies, I am keeping this one short.
Sloan Bashinsky
And here I was thinking Substack had stole my replies to Heather's letter. I think Trump and the MAGAs and most Republicans are right when they call Democrats "snowflakes".
Ally
Sloan, it was weird. I had several multi paragraph replies disappear. I disagree. The MAGAts are the snowflakes.
Sloan Bashinsky
I wish you were not so very sadly mistaken. Perhaps for the first time ever, a robot moderator agrees with me?
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