The month of January has been a whirlwind for American politics. On January 6th, rioters attacked and invaded the United States Capitol postponing the certification of President Elect Joe Biden and leaving the country in total shock. Scenes of Trump supporters shattered windows, carrying guns into the capitol, and placing their feet over Nancy Pelosi’s desk fostered feelings of hopelessness, waves of despair and the illusion of an anarchist state.
Two weeks later, President Biden’s inauguration seemed to have restored hope, stability, unity, and democracy in the United States, but not fully. The assault on the capitol marked a terrorist attack on this country and like previous attacks, the nation will need time to heal and process until it fully recovers.
“I felt saddened, angry and deeply disturbed by the events that unfolded on January 6th. I was saddened to see the capitol building, the seat of our democracy desecrated and to know that so many people believe the lies they are being fed by right-wing media,” wrote Rob Greenwald, math teacher at Fieldston.
Vincent Drybala, english teacher at Fieldston, shared a similar sentiment: “In all, the Capitol is a sign of the US government, but more than that, it theoretically represents the highest ideals of the country: equality, freedom, democracy. This act felt like an assault on not only that landmark and the elected officials inside, but also an assault upon many of those ideals,” wrote Drybala.
Antika Singh, history teacher at Fieldston, shared that the attack felt personal given her time spent living in Washington, DC. She said, “all I can say is that my first reaction was just how close to home it hit. I lived in DC for 4 years and taught there and I lived really close to the capitol and to think about that big mob and that group of individuals doing what they did just invoked a lot of fear to be honest… it just brought on a feeling of hopelessness, anger, and so many things.”
Furthermore, the event cannot be seen as an accident, but rather a symptom of the country that President Trump and the Republican Party created. “My biggest fear is that this is not over. This will only embolden these radical right groups that are being given such open encouragement and succor by a president and so many members of a national party,” said Greenwald, “the Republican Party has been flirting with these people for quite some time beginning with Nixon’s southern strategy, continuing with Reagan’s launching of his candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi, site of the murder of three civil rights activists, G.H.W. Bush’s Willie Horton ads and now has culminated in an open embrace of them by Trump and his acolytes.”
“I was both angered and shocked; that the protests were allowed to get to that point – certainly wouldn’t have happened at a BLM march; that a significant portion of the American population – we call them “Republicans” – not only encouraged this anger, but were also shocked when it manifested in anger; and the facts that have come out since suggest that we were very, very lucky it wasn’t worse,” said Drybala.
While moving on from these events has proven difficult, President Biden’s inauguration on January 20th undoubtedly brought a glimmer of hope for the country. When reflecting on the inauguration, Singh said, “I think there is a hope for change just given the last four years and how polarizing everything has been.”
President Biden presented himself as a symbol of stability and unity which is what our country needs during this time. However, our country is also in need of the diversity, representation, and change that Vice President Kamala Harris represents. Singh, who identifies as Indian-America, said, “I think Kamala Harris represents so many different intersections of identity and growing up I didn’t see many people that looked like myself in the media, in entertainment, in positions of power… You can now look to the highest office in the country and see someone that looks like you; it opens up the door to so many young women, Southasian women, Black women, multiracial women [telling them] that you can defy all the odds and know that it is possible to attain that.”
Even though white supremacists and members of the Republican party are still present in the United States and its government, at least the oval office is occupied by someone that believes in progress, democracy, and freedom. As a nation, we should not forget of the Capitol assault, but we should be grateful for the new era in American politics that we have entered.
