At the peak of each new year, the month of January calls for fresh starts, personal goal setting, and hopeful resolutions. It is a time when people are encouraged to look forward rather than back in order to imagine what the new year might bring. Yet, beneath this renewal, we must not forget that the month of January carries a reminder of a day none of us will forget. While the calendar may reset, history will not, and for that reason, we must remember what happened on January 6th 2021.
On the historic Wednesday in 2021, as Congress gathered to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, a large group of supporters of former President Donald Trump marched to the U.S. Capitol in protest of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. What was meant to be a routine democratic expression broke out into utter chaos, disrupting the peaceful transfer of power in an attempt to overturn an otherwise lawful election.
Describing the attack as a “war scene,” Capitol police officer Caroline Edwards came home from work that day as a different person than she was that morning. In The Guardian’s article, Edwards recalls the gruesome events that followed.
“[There were] officers on the ground. They were bleeding, on the ground, throwing up,” Edwards said. “I was slipping in people’s blood… I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage. It was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw.”
Edwards’ story exists as just one version of the thousands of accounts of the lasting physical and psychological damage inflicted on police officers and Capitol staff. Still, despite the many people who had lost their lives that day, Americans continue to debate both the impact that January 6th has had on our governing bodies and the reality of our failing confidence in democracy.
January 6th did not necessarily change the politics of the United States. Instead, it shifted the lens through which Americans view their government. As history has shown, the strength of a well-oiled democracy lies not only in its Constitution, but also in the level of commitment that the people are willing to contribute in order to uphold it. What soon remained clear was that the faith that citizens and public servants had vested in the stability of the government had been viciously ripped away from them, revealing just how fragile the peaceful transfer of power can become when belief in democratic systems is lost. This day revealed extreme discrepancies within the political system; the failure of our government to protect the lives of many.
It is important to acknowledge this day as a reminder of loss, grief, and the ongoing responsibility of all citizens to protect the foundations of civil democracy. We must carry on the legacies of those who perished in this ambush and ultimately, ensure that a government built on law, order, and the will of the people progresses for generations and events such as this never happen again.