By Victor C. Kirk
(noun – insurrections (plural noun) a violent uprising against an authority or government. “Synonyms: rebellion, revolt, uprising, mutiny, revolution, insurgence, insurgency, rising, rioting, riot”)
The event occurred nearly a week ago. Like most around the world, my eyes were fixed on the television set. I could not get enough – clicking the remote from one channel to another then back to see what I may have missed. I began with CNN as usual. The twenty-four-hour news format of CNN fills my pallet with events of the day peppered with reporters from all walks of life. But today, CNN was not enough. I switched to BBC News needing to know how the world reacted to the surge on the Capitol and viewing elected representatives couched on the floor, stressed, eyes bucked, fear on their faces.
For a moment I relived reading the Washington post as it recounted the number of new Congress members and rejoiced at the number of females having set a record. My inner self felt helpless for instinct told me that I or some other male is supposed to be there to help rescue them from this crisis – men are supposed to protect. The camera switches to the door as the crowd surges while beating and hammering at the glass inserts. The camera now switches to a member of the capitol police trapped between the crowd and the door opening. I cannot get rid of the sound of his loud cry of agony and pain as the pain increased with each effort by a rioter to remove his gas mask. I felt his pain for some reason. Identified with his dilemma – no place to go, trapped and no one around to help. He did not sign up for this, an angry crowd summoned by the President of the United States to “be strong”.
His military service prepared him for war on foreign lands – not an insurgence an insurrection targeting a nations ultimate symbol of freedom – its capitol building.
I watched so much news, hooked on the unfolding events and the analysis of the paralysis that my wife linked my outbreak of hives to nerves. Say it is not so!! Can someone watch too much news? I switched from BBC News to MSNBC back to CBS then to CNN. For a moment I turned to the Fox news station. Just what I expected – no repudiation of the Presidents’ calls to action, and the inconsequential impact of a mobs voicing a desire to find the Speaker of the House and bring with them the tools required to hang the Vice President,
This morning as I began my daily clicking of the remote from station to station watching each news report and seeking out a new angle, a new overnight development, for the first time I felt fear. I had talked to a friend of mine in DC, a native, who informed me that her son was at the Capitol when the riot took place. He was filming with a crew from Spain. The news reports only gave creditability to a fraction of what happened. To be there and have a personal and firsthand view of insurgence underway. The sounds of the crowd, the sounds of glass breaking, to hear the shot that befell a foe of the US Government. Then to make matters worse, she shared with me the comments from an FBI close friend. More weapons were found, more tools to kill in a much more savage way were seized. My fear was justified with her last comment – “everybody knows it was planned and there were persons on “The Hill” who helped zealots plot the overthrow of the government”.
My fear this morning was a reality check. Plots to defame and destroys one’s life are a reality that can be executed with ease and the culprits remain anonymous. Passivity is a defense; anonymity may be preferred. The heroes of Parity and Equity all die before their time. We all have a choice.
