Reality checks help keep in perspective our national truth

If you are like me, now and again your man ponders what the January 6 Insurrection at the nation’s capital door might have looked like if the perpetrators were leaders and followers of the Black Lives Movement, rather than white nationalists.

I shudder to think of the carnage the world would have been exposed to, the incalculable Black and brown souls that would have been spread in blood across the steps leading to the hallowed halls of Congress.

If the insurrectionists, or more correctly, domestic terrorists, had been Black, there would have been no three and a half-hour delay before sending in the National Guard. There would not have been hundreds of arrests at the scene. There would have been thousands.

And then-President 45 would not have prohibited troops from firing on the demonstrators. Every honest American knows January 6 would have been a whole different story if the perpetrators were predominantly Black and brown.

It would have been a massacre; a despicable display of gruesome force that those who witnessed it could never unsee.

You would think defense of democracy would be a no-brainer, bipartisan position in the aftermath of January 6. Well, think again. This nation has become so politically fractured that even the most basic tenets of our constitution are shamefully divided down party lines.

While Democrats were presenting an airtight, compelling and emotional argument of the facts that surrounded the despicable January 6 terrorist attack on the capital, Republican lawmakers were reading books, doodling, playing with mobile devices, napping and generally ignoring the evidence.

At one point, a CNN reporter snapped a photo of at least 15 empty seats on the Republican side of the Senate. That means out of the 50 elected and sworn to uphold the Constitution, only 30 percent even bothered to show up.

Lawyers for the disgraced former president plan to use only a fraction of time allotted to make closing defense arguments.

Two reasons for that.

Number one, there is no defense for what 45 did to permanently stain the process of peaceful transition of government by urging violent lunatic minions to storm the bastion of democracy, leaving six Americans dead.

The second reason the arguments will be short is because senators have clearly already made up their minds to acquit. They declared that from the start. So don’t get it twisted, acquittal does not mean “not guilty.” It will be these feckless GOP lawmakers’ cowardly way of ignoring the most egregious transgression against the U.S. government by any elected official in history.

It is a horrific badge of dishonor that they must wear throughout time. While they are disgusting, Americans should be glad that we went through the process of this trial, at least trying to hold 45 accountable.

There is little that can be done when people totally shirk responsibility and respond to the indisputable truth saying: “My mind is made up…don’t confuse me with the facts.” The sad reality is that this is NOT a nation of laws when it comes to justice infected by politics, wealth and whiteness.

No, this isn’t news. But every now and then, just for a reality check, we need to be reminded of stark, disturbing truth. That’s the only hope for change—to refuse to ever accept, ignore or marginalize the severity of injustice and inequity of the nation in which we have invested so much for so long and still manage to love.

CIRCLE CITY CONNECTION by Vernon A. Williams is a series of essays on myriad topics that include social issues, human interest, entertainment and profiles of difference-makers who are forging change in a constantly evolving society. Williams is a 40-year veteran journalist based in Indianapolis, IN – commonly referred to as The Circle City. Send comments or questions to: [email protected].