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Here in the Fieldston bubble, discussing the impending apocalypse from afar, it\u2019s generally easy to believe that decency and democracy will prevail regardless. We believe, perhaps as a means of coping, that justice will come out on top, and that despots always topple under their weight. But now, as armed extremists storm the Capitol and the President responds to their attempted coup by telling them “We love you. You\u2019re very special,\u201d we are left to wonder:\u00a0will\u00a0<\/em>it work out in the end?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n If there had been lingering doubt about the Trump Presidency, today confirms what he stands for: himself and the preservation of his power. Today, January 6th, 2021, will be remembered as one of the darkest days in our nation\u2019s history. To echo Senator Chuck Schumer\u2019s description, it was \u201ca horrible stain on our country that will not so easily be washed away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s events were about more than just the political partisanship that divides us into blue and red; about more than the myriad identities each of us possesses and more than the lived experiences of different communities. Today was about the tearing of America\u2019s most basic, most guaranteed fabric: freedom and democracy. The right to peaceably assemble was corrupted by rioters attempting to invalidate the people\u2019s will and vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n America\u2019s decline into fascism is becoming more than intellectual classroom fodder\u2013it\u2019s been made real by the political violence that has grown steadily more common leading into this year. Dangers that have long existed relatively comfortably in the realm of the hypothetical are becoming tangible, as the most terrifying \u2018what-ifs\u2019 imaginable loom ever-closer to our reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n A fear lingers that our irreconcilable differences will soon become too vast, too extreme, for us to coexist as \u201cone nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.\u201d Although we wish that the statement from Senator Mitt Romney urging \u201ccolleagues to move forward with completing the electoral count, to refrain from further objections, and to unanimously affirm the legitimacy of the presidential election\u201d could quickly restore faith in the U.S. Constitution, this feat will take time. And although we wish to believe Mitch McConnell when he says that \u201cthey try to disrupt our democracy, they failed,\u201d we know that as a nation, the restoration of our government will, too, take time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s events struck perhaps the most savage blow to America\u2019s reputation as a paragon of liberal democracy. Our current political climate has seduced and reduced us to the superficially satisfactory \u201cblame game\u201d across the board. Yet now more than ever we need to overcome the temptation to throw ourselves deeper into division and instead, take on this atrocious threat to our democracy with unity – not the unity that belongs in an ideological realm, but one that authentically brings Americans together on the necessary notion that we will prevail and preserve democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our generation is now faced with the task of healing a fractured nation in the aftermath of Trump\u2019s polarizing presidency. A task, we might add, that is an obligation rather than a choice if we want a safe and just world for ourselves and our children. We must remain committed to restoring our democracy and to the principles of unity and freedom. As written in an email by our Head of School, Jessica Bagby, \u201cAs citizens of conscience, we will not be cowed by a lawless rabble, but are more committed than ever to knitting together our divided country and empowering [ourselves] to strengthen our democracy through [our] moral imagination and will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here in the Fieldston bubble, discussing the impending apocalypse from afar, it\u2019s generally easy to believe that decency and democracy will prevail regardless. We believe, perhaps as a means of coping, that justice will come out on top, and that despots always topple under their weight. But now, as armed extremists storm the Capitol and the President responds to their attempted coup by telling them “We love you. You\u2019re very special,\u201d we are left to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[347,318,320],"tags":[],"coauthors":[375],"class_list":["post-5115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-news","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5116,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115\/revisions\/5116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5115"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/XaLctBK9FcUOdUYL6zZPKAgo9fbfu3IbGEf5908N9eG58Xa4YZwub_rfk6CPJxJBIBLA77Ha4GM6n7hobotXJhhL4WiSedy8BcFREFCmIsGoCrGjZ5eblfqlCjrbpJ27elBbIDyy\")