jennifer-roberts It is hard to believe that it has been a year since the January 6th events at the United States Capitol. I vividly remember going into my bedroom, closing the door and turning on the news. I wasn’t sure what to expect and didn’t want my children walking in on something that had the potential to traumatize them.
I sat in disbelief as I watched dozens of Americans breech the barriers to the U.S. Capitol, scale its exterior, break windows, and force their way inside. I watched as outside some participants toted Donald Trump flags, some waved American flags and others paraded both. I couldn’t believe the audacity of the men and women who pushed their way past police officers in search of congress people and in search of Vice President Michael Pence. I can still hear some of the participants saying, “Hang Mike Pence.”
And then there was the photo of Richard Barnett, the man who is accused of breaking into House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s office with a weapon and posing for pictures with his feet propped up on her desk.
Inside the capitol building, the Vice President at the time, Michael Pence, was overseeing the counting of electoral votes to verify the November 2nd, 2021 presidential election. Despite this routine process being executed many times before, there were some Americans who believed the words of former President Trump that he had been cheated out of winning the election due to wide-spread voter fraud which was proven not to be the case. There were enough people who believed Trump’s lie and were able to organize, assemble and wreak havoc on the United States capitol not to mention leave seven people dead that day, two police officers dead in the months following the attack and others seriously injured.
I remember taking pictures of the news coverage so that I would have a personal record of what was happening to share with my children and my future grandchildren. I am grateful for the opportunity to observe and document the events for myself; that I was able to hold the pen and the camera. Holding the pen and the camera, creating a firsthand account of what was happening, empowered me to share with future generations what I saw, heard and thought.
As I watched the chaos of the afternoon, I thought about how this time will be remembered, what will be said and what will be taught. What will be changed? What will be kept? What will be omitted? I thought about how the versions of the story will be different depending on the story-teller. I thought about how millions of people around the world saw the same events happening, but each person will have a different perspective.
Some people may say that the events of January 6th, 2021 were warranted and that the participants were true patriots. Some will call the participants protestors while others call them insurrectionists. Some will say that former President Trump didn’t have the power to influence the participants’ actions and others will say that he could have stopped them if he desired and that he incited a riot. Some will say that had most of the participants been people of color that they would have been gunned down by police. Others will say that the defenders of democracy were inside the capitol verifying votes while others will say that the defenders of democracy were outside. What will you say?
Amidst all of the destruction, pandemonium and confusion of January 6th, 2021, I had one recurring thought, “As shameful as this is, at least people can see and hear what is happening for themselves.” They can draw a conclusion for themselves because of the breadth of available information.
There is power in being able to see and hear what is occurring for yourself and then make an educated decision about what you think. There is value in being able to express your experience and point of view and understand the perspectives of others instead of there being one narrative that is perpetuated as the truth. Because millions of people all over the world were holding pens and cameras on January 6th, countless points of view will be shared for generations to come. Many voices will express varying opinions and future generations will have the opportunity to research and interpret this part of American history for themselves. Access to technology has given more people the ability to capture, process and exchange information in ways that historically were not possible or were made impossible.
There is a quote by the Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe, that says, “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” I often think about how the indigenous people of North America’s pens were snatched out of their hands by the European settlers leaving their historical experience largely left untold. I think about how the pens of the Africans who were stolen from the continent and sold into chattel slavery were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean drowning their stories with them. My heart breaks for the millions of Black people who were born into slavery who were tortured and murdered for even attempting to hold a pen, for daring to tell their stories.
Historically, American history has recorded and perpetuated a European perspective. It’s not those other points of views and experiences didn’t exist; they were intentionally omitted because the one who holds the pen controls the narrative.
I am grateful that on January 6th, 2021, there were countless pens feverishly scribbling, many lenses capturing the day’s events as they unfolded and many voices participating in the dialogue. Even though there will never be a unanimous agreement about what happened on January 6th, 2021and why it happened, there will be representation in recounting the events no matter how varied the recollections.
