capitol riots

History, like a human life, is benchmarked by watershed-seminal events that either reset the compass of men or nations towards loftier plateaus or into deeper trouble. The election campaign of 1864 was viewed in its time as one of those watersheds in America’s young life… The United States was split int two, gripped in a monstrous civil war, a war of brothers, the most devasting and murderous in the nation’s history to that point. The election held in the middle of it became the first democratic canvass ever successfully carried out during a civil war anywhere at any time. It was an election in which the issue was what kind of nation this was going to be-unified, however painfully, without slavery: or permanently divided with or without it…and that made it the most critical election in our history. Re-electing Lincoln, The Battle for the 1861 Presidency. John C. Waugh 2001 There are some days that events occur that send shockwaves throughout the world. January 6, 2021 was that day. It was not exactly a day where history repeated itself, but history did rhyme. Wednesday, January 6 was the statutorily stipulated day chosen to certify the results of November 20 Biden-Harris victory. The election would later be characterized as the most secure national election in American history. The big lie had been gestating for months and now the water broke, and the lie began breathing on its own. January 6 also became a day of infamy. Not since the British invaded the American capitol in 1814 had a sacrilege took place at 1600 Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. Some events are watershed events that are inscribed into our brain’s memory networks.  I can distinctly remember watching Emmet Till’s funeral on TV in my grandmother’s living room. Most baby boomers can remember where they were when President Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy, Rev. Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers were cut down. Mama and I were watching the news about 1 p.m. I was channel surfing between MSNBC, post truth-FOX and CNN. As Trump was beginning his insurrectionary tirade about a mile from the Capitol. […]