By Peter E. Carter
Wednesday, Jan. 6, may not be a day that shall live in infamy but certainly will be a day that shall live in melancholy.
As television allows us to relive those moments and hours of the siege on our nation’s Capitol building, we must reflect upon what within us as human beings could prompt such behavior: Behavior involving the destruction of public and hallowed property and the taking of lives. Behavior seeped in mob mentality, stirred and stimulated by a third party. Behavior emboldened by beliefs based in nontruths. Behavior spurred by a mere difference in opinion. What could be so deeply felt as to cause men and women not merely to take to the streets and demonstrate but to take to the steps and columns of a national monument?
Several “reasons” have been advanced, among which was the fact that the incumbent chief of state was not reelected into his current position. It was an election, an action of choice, where millions of Americans chose to express their opinions regarding whom each wished to be in charge of the country for the subsequent four years. It seems simple enough. And actually, it is. It is an American process. It is a worldwide process. It is even a high school process.
There are pageant kings and queens, student council officers — my goodness, even sports team captains — that are all elected positions. Many have lost in their attempts to be something or another, I among them. After my loss for the Fordham University student government presidency, for example, I went on to broadcast the football game against New York University in 1964. I use the example not to toot my own horn but to show what usually happens after a loss. I was deeply disappointed, but my fellow students had spoken. They wanted “the other guy.” Now, almost 60 years later, he is a friend.
There was a deep feeling of loss, triggered by disbelief, that such a phenomenon even occurred and then, a made-up story, it seems, that the election process was somehow flawed in that the outcome went to the opponent. Those Americans who agreed with the incumbent’s insistence on fiction took it upon themselves to react in a most unexpected way. However, it is important to note that the sympathizers had broadcast in advance what they intended to do to cause some type of reversal of the outcome. Perhaps we need to examine the entire process. Imagine the difference if, once the popular vote is counted, a winner is declared, and that’s that.
It is worth a wonder if the head cheerleader or the captain had to be processed through a group of additional students called the pompom college. There is a College of Cardinals who choose a pope, but once that is done, it is done.
It appears that we need to inject a large dose of “kinder and gentler” into the national election process and, obviously, a booster shot some weeks later.
I have no idea the myriad emotional impetuses that caused hundreds of our neighbors to abandon good sense and climb and enter a building and its offices, making sure all saw who they were, even when a legitimate opportunity to wear a mask was offered. But whatever swing of mental distress was present, the outcome was appalling.
We have all been disappointed in our lives in matters not pertaining to politics. Remember when your sister ate the last chocolate chip cookie from the box, and mom had not yet gone to the grocery store? Even worse, when your so-called friend took that girl you thought was special to you to the prom. Or maybe when your parents decided to move the family to another town during your senior year of high school.
These and so many events in life have made us angry at best and put us at our wits’ end at worst. I shall go out on a limb and state that no one trashed the living room or vandalized the family car. And there is reason for that, and we all know what it is.
Preparation and consequence are two essential phenomena that may be topics for a later commentary, but both are worth mentioning here.
However, I wish to instill in the reader that we need to be kinder to one another and make a greater effort to accept what is with dignity and understanding. Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones sang, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Back in the day, we bought hundreds of thousands of recordings of that classic. Perhaps it is worth a listen these many decades later.. (Those under 40 years old are invited to research “record” and “album.”)
Robert Frost, the renowned poet, has written, “…there are miles to go before I sleep.” We have days to go before we inaugurate, but months and years before we can heal what are wounds much deeper than initially perceived. Come on, people, get together now. We’ve got to not only love one another right now, but we need to try to better understand each other and thus move toward that “kinder and gentler” thing, based on Pappy (George H.W.) Bush’s exhortation of years past.
Peter E. Carter is a retired public school administrator and author of “A Black First,” available at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach. He resides in Lewes.
