Editor’s note: Morristown Green invited some local high school students to share their reactions to Wednesday’s siege at the Capitol. As with all commentaries here, the opinions are the authors’, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
By Hannah Rose Williams
What happened Wednesday in the Capitol was not an act of protest, but terrorism. It has shown the country’s true colors and exposed a divide that is palpable.
During the attack, virtually no security was provided.
“Clearly there was a failure there,” said Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, according to Politico.
But was this really a failure, or a purposeful lack of readiness? It is naive to believe this was simply a coincidence that security forces did not do their jobs.
Only a few short months ago, Black Lives Matter activists were in D.C., joined by people from across the country.
When they came to Washington to fight for the lives of Black Americans, Trump supporters came to vent anger.
When people came to demand justice for murders and inequalities that run deep in our country, Trump supporters came to wave their Confederate flags.
And when people came to simply make the point that Black lives matter just as much as everyone else’s, Trump supporters came to disrespect them and make fun of our country.
There is no excuse for these events. To say race is not a factor in what has happened in America would be lying to yourself, and lying about this country. People were teargassed and shot with rubber bullets while demonstrating for Black lives.
Yet when white Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol — spurred by fraudulent claims of a “stolen” election–most met scant resistance.
This was not a matter of unpreparedness, or a misunderstanding, but blatant and belligerent racism.
How can we as Americans allow citizens to display the Confederate flag in the Capitol of our country?
What does that say about what we represent and allow to be represented? A flag that stands for the enslavement of the people we are fighting for today. This is white supremacy, a disgrace to democracy.
A lawless mob trying to overturn a lawful election got away with hardly an arrest.
When will the United States stop looking the other way, and stop making excuses for domestic terrorists masquerading as protesters?
Hannah Rose Williams, a junior at the Morristown-Beard School in Morris Township, where she is co-president of the Debate Club and the Math Club (which she founded), and an editor of the Crimson Sun school newspaper. Last summer, she studied journalism and political philosophy (virtually) in the Harvard Summer Program, and government/ethics/law with the New York Times. An occasional contributor to Morristown Green, she aspires to a law career.
What an absolute ridiculous lie this is portrayed by the media. People were killed, one white woman shot by a black officer. Hundreds of videos of police beating white men for breaking through gates. There was just nothing that could be done when the mob is 100s of thousands of people. What did you expect them to do?
Racism for cops taking photos with people? Yet during the BLM mobs rioting, burning, looting, and destroying property and taking over streets in major cities around the country for two months, you had police marching alongside them, posing for pictures, and talking to hundreds of the peaceful ones, and that was not a problem at all right?? Right?
“simply make the point that Black lives matter”??? Really? Tell that to the thousands of innocent business owners who had their windows smashed in on Main St. Tell that to the people in the hospital who got dragged out of their cars and beaten by the mobs.
While I don’t condone at all what happened at the Capitol, what utter garbage this opinion is that this was a demonstration of the country’s racism.
Thank you for catching that, Jeff.
I agree with all of your points here but the initial tweet shared is blatantly wrong and I just don’t want it to distract from the message – the first pic is of the Lincoln Memorial, NOT the Capital Building.