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Max Kintner's avatar

Thanks for this column, Will. While I was reading it, I ran over in my mind my memories of earth shattering events in the US political spectrum. I was with a crowd of school kids in a cafeteria when President Kennedy was shot. What happened? What happened? Everyone stirred. A great murmur went through the crowd and joy turned to serious grief. I mark that as the end of the Baby Boomer generation, when the youth of the USA went from believing that the world was full of hope and opportunity, to hesitancy and fearfulness of the future.

When 9/11 happened I was at my sister's house in Rockland County, NY. She was on her way to work in New Jersey when she called me from her car and said, "Turn on the TV. The radio is saying that apparently a light plane has run into the World Trade Center and one of the buildings is burning." I immediately turned on the TV and saw smoke rising from one of the towers. Then I saw a plane in the background coming toward the building. I remember distinctly thinking, "That must be a rescue plane coming to rescue the people on the roof." But, it momentarily disappeared from view, then crashed into the other building. I jumped aback in shock. My niece was in NYC visiting at a friend's apartment and saw it live. She had been filming the other tower's smoke when she saw the second plane and put the video recorder down for a second and saw the second plane hit with her naked eyes. Then she saw the building fall and she and her friend decided they needed to evacuate. We lost contact with her when the tower fell.

On January 6, 2021, I was at my home in Saratoga Co, NY when my cousin called from her home in Rockland Co, and asked, "Are you watching the certification?" I said, "Oh, gosh. I forgot. I'll turn on the TV." That was about 12:30 PM. I was half-way watching and half-way doing something else when I noticed that people were crossing the police line and the reporter was saying something like "it looks like the security line has been breached." I immediately started paying close attention. To my horror the police by the entrance door were just backing away as the crowd pushed past them and into the building. I was yet unable to see the police by the barricades who were being beaten, some with the very pieces of the barricades that were there to prevent their crossing. At some point, I saw news persons being attacked and their cameras being thrashed to pieces. It all became confusing. I couldn't comprehend what was happening. The news announcer, someone from the New York Times, had to leave his post and take refuge in a shelter room from which he was unable to transmit. A secret room. Shots rang out. People were breaking windows. I stood horrified watching this play out live on the TV. The news reporters announcing on the TV were trying to make sense of it. News came in that members of the Congress and the Vice President had had to take refuge in secret chambers. To this day I replay this live coverage in my head and the only analogy I can bring to mind is movie depictions of the storming of the Bastille. Was our Republic being brought down by a mob? Are these people likening our Republic to a heartless monarchy? Is the will of the people, the 8 million plus margin by which President Biden won the election to be cast out by this disrespectful, hateful and destructive mob. Is this the Vandals sacking Rome?

The January 6 Committee did us all a great service. They were able to connect the dots of the narrative and help us understand as a nation what had happened. In the context of the history of the USA and the history of the world, January 6, 2021 was a turning point in global perspective. Our European Allies and Mexican and Canadian Allies are greatly dependent on the United nature of the States of America for their growth and stability. If our future is precarious, so is theirs. Those of us who are citizens of the USA in good faith must support President Biden in his mission to ensure global security, not through weapons of war, but through economic security and a progressive outlook that recognizes the importance of an ecology of hope that protects the dream and the planet. We are one on this planet and alone in the universe. Good government and respect for the law is necessary lest we lose everything.

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Brenda Phillips's avatar

Yes. We should never forget what happened that day.

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