Coup d’état: January 6th was a seditious attack by right wing insurrectionists

Echo letter to the editor | Aim of January 6 riot was to seize power. Published in The News-Gazette newspaper, in Illinois.

(Ya' Think? 🤔)

Aim of Jan. 6 riot was to seize power!

There are hundreds of posts about plans to attack the Capitol. 

Writing in response to a February 18, letter in which the events of Jan. 6, 2021, are downplayed. In the letter, the horrible events are described as a “protest gone bad, not a threat to the government.”

Unfortunately, the facts don’t support such a claim.

The Cline Center for Advanced Social Research has compiled the authoritative list of attempted insurrections globally since 1947. So what was its determination? “The storming of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, was an attempted coup d’état: an organized, illegal attempt to intervene in the presidential transition by displacing the power of the Congress to certify the election.”

More damning are the admissions of guilt by participants themselves. On March 2, Joshua James pleaded guilty to “seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding.” James is one of 10 members of the Oath Keepers similarly charged and the first to admit his role.

Robert Palmer, who recently pleaded guilty to attacking police with a fire extinguisher, shared his motivations and regrets at sentencing, saying the former President Donald Trump “kept spitting out the false narrative about a stolen election and how it was ‘our duty’ to stand up to tyranny. Little did I realize that they were the tyrannical ones desperate to hold on to power at any cost.”

Indeed, there were participants whose intention was not the violent overthrow of our government. However, to label the events as a “protest gone bad” is to excuse a coordinated, violent attempt to undermine our democracy.

From Todd Sweet, in Champaign, Illinois

Racism is harming our human condition

An Illinois point of view, echo published in The News-Gazette 

View the world in new light, through the eyes of those who are the object of racist remarks. A call to improve our human condition by creating awareness about racism and its negative impact.

The News-Gazette 

Reference this news story as published on National Public Radio:

Rep. Mark Meadows, Rep. RashidaTlaib Cool Down After Fiery Exchange Over Racism At Michael Cohen Hearing with the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Dear Editor;  During the Michael Cohen hearing on February 27, 2019, when Rep. Mark Meadows, a Republican from North Carolina, began speaking with a black woman standing next to him, I thought something was odd. And I didn't fully comprehend my notion until later in the day when I heard the recording of Rep. Rashida Tlaib articulating what was just a tiny mustard seed in my head earlier.

She called out Meadows for a racist act, and her vehemence as to the affront his actions and words were to the committee, Congress and our country set in motion a self reflection that has brought me understanding that I am a little bit racist.

Calling out racism is not intended to describe how the racist feels. It is intended to inform those who cannot recognize that their words and actions make others feel belittled, oppressed or unsafe.

I realized that I am blind to my racism because I don't engage in overtly racists acts and I tell myself that means I'm not racist. But still, it's likely I don't see all the little things I do, that if done to me, I'd just brush off because I don't have the same history as those I offend.

So I need to think, self reflect and see the world around me in a new light.

I need to examine my words and actions and try to see how they will affect others, whatever the issues may be. And until I can identify and react with the intensity of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, in the moment as it's happening, I cannot call myself brave, nor can I say I am not a racist.

Michael Miller  Champaign, Illinois