Last night at 3 am on the Capitol floor, Republican Andy Harris of Maryland and Democrat Collin Allred of Texas nearly came to blows over a speech being given by a colleague and had to be physically separated. Good Grief!
With the storming of the capitol yesterday and now this, what comes next?
Now the national media says that only two previous incidents compare to what happened yesterday.
The burning of the capitol by the British during the War of 1812, and the attack by Puerto Rican Nationalists in 1954.
They are partially correct. Has it ever been this bad? The answer is yes.
America’s seat of government has endured bombings, a presidential assassination attempt, and even its destruction by foreign forces. There have also been attacks from inside—including a near-fatal attack on one lawmaker by another.
The U.S. Capitol was still under construction when it was torched by British troops who had invaded Washington, D.C. in one of the most famous skirmishes of the War of 1812. The troops “ignited a giant bonfire of furniture” in the Hall of the House of Representatives that was so intense it destroyed Giuseppe Franzoni’s life-size marble statue of Liberty. Another bonfire was set in the Supreme Court Chamber, which at the time was housed in the Capitol building.
Upon surveying the damage, several members of Congress called to move the federal government to Philadelphia or another city that they thought might be more secure.
On January 30, 1835, a thirtysomething British immigrant named Richard Lawrence attempted to assassinate President Andrew Jackson while he was leaving a congressional funeral at the U.S. Capitol. Fortunately, Lawrence’s attempt failed—twice. When the powder from his first pistol failed to ignite, Lawrence raised a second pistol but missed his target and was tackled by bystanders. It was the first known attempt to assassinate a U.S. president.
On May 22nd, 1856 Senator Charles Sumner delivered a speech slamming the Kansas / Nebraska Act and its impact on Kansas. He called it “The rape of Virgin Territory”, claiming that Kansas was being raped by Missouri pro slavery forces and attacked his colleague, Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina. Shortly after that speech, Butler’s cousin, Congressman Preston Brooks, assaulted Sumner on the Senate floor.
Sumner was sitting at his desk writing a letter when Brooks attacked him with his walking cane. Brooks said he would have challenged him to a duel, but duels were for gentlemen and Sumner didn’t qualify so the only thing to do was to thrash him like the dog he was.
Brooks beat Sumner to unconsciousness, and it took 3 years for Sumner to return to his duties in the senate. For weeks after the event people sent canes to Brooks and said please beat a senator for me.
As the nation headed into the Fourth of July weekend in 1915, a former Harvard University professor named Erich Muenter exploded three sticks of dynamite in the Senate Reception Room. Muenter later explained that he was angry that American financiers were aiding the U.K. in World War I despite America’s official neutrality at the time. There were no injuries—the Senate was out of session—but the New York Times reported at the time that the explosion had shattered a chandelier, damaged the plaster on the room’s ceiling, and blew open doors—including one to the office of the vice president.
This brings us to the attack by Puerto Rican Nationalists mentioned by the news analysts yesterday.
In 1954, long before the Capitol had higher security, including metal detectors, four Puerto Rican nationalists entered the House gallery, took out guns, and began firing indiscriminately.
One waved a Puerto Rico flag. Five House members were wounded in the protest aimed at independence for the commonwealth, which the United States seized from Spain in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. The attackers served long prison terms, which were commuted by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 after an international campaign.
The violent antiwar Weather Underground planted a bomb in a bathroom on the Senate side of the Capitol. The explosion in the early hours of March 1, 1971 caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, but no casualties.
1983: Bomb goes off on the Senate side
There were no casualties either when a bomb hidden under a bench outside the Senate Chamber exploded, blowing the hinges off the door to the office of Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia. A group calling itself the Armed Resistance Unit carried out the attack to protest the military’s actions in Grenada and Lebanon. Seven people were charged in the attack.
So, as you can see, attacking the capital as a way to protest is not unique in our history.
The big question now is. How do we move forward.
Here are my concerns:
We are a nation divided, Lincoln himself stated, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.
Can you substitute the phrase “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free”. With “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half democrat and half republican?”
It is a very good question.
The world sees that we are divided. Does that make us vulnerable to attacks from other countries? I think it does.
Next, how do you rule a divided country? The Democrats may control the House, Senate, and Presidency, but you can make all the rules and laws you want. It won’t matter if half the country refuses to obey them.
This brings me to my third concern. Violence has become the norm in our society. Gone are the days when people could sit down and argue out their differences.
You see it everywhere. Hate mail, bullying in our schools, tearing down statues, road rage, the anti-police movements and yes, the burning of our cities and the storming of the capitol.
For the past two years we have seen protests in the streets of places like St. Louis, Chicago, Kenosha, Portland, Seattle, and Detroit.
Bricks were thrown at law enforcement defending a federal courthouse.
The media said these were peaceful protests and even referred to one as a summer of love.
Folks, the media has a huge impact on the people of this great nation. They have programmed us all to accept things that just 50 years ago would have been totally unacceptable in our society regardless of what you party politics were.
So it comes as no surprise to me that things turned ugly yesterday. They have been ugly for a long time and the national media is having a field day with all of it.
Sensationalist news sells.
Frederic Remington, the famous artist who brought to life American images of the west was hired by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst to illustrate the revolution erupting in Cuba. He wrote back to Hearst one day in January 1897:
“Everything is quiet. There is no trouble. There will be no war. I wish to return.”
Hearst sent back a note: “Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”
Well, nothing has changed. I don’t care what party you are, the national media is loving all that has happened over the past two years leading up to, and including yesterday.
They are promoting the hate and violence we see today.
Don’t believe me? Do any of you hate the Ayatollah of Iran? How about Osama Bin Laden or Sadaam Hussein?
You say “Of course”! Did you ever meet any of these people? Have you ever talked to them? Then why do you say you hate them?
The answer is easy. The media. Now I any not saying I in anyway think these are good people. But, the only thing we have to go on is what the media has told us. Period. Therein lies the problem.
We trust the media. Even worse, we now trust Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
Unfortunately they are no better than Randolph Hearst. Sensationalist media sells. The more the better.
In a nation of 328 million people, it is easy to find whatever sensationalist story you want on any given day. Especially with our advanced technology.
Want a story about a black man shot by a cop? We will find one.
Want a story about a cop shot by a criminal? We will find one.
How about a corrupt polititician? No problem. Democrat or Republican?
Missing child? What age? What location? Ethnicity, background, single parent? We will find one. 100’s of kids go missing in the US every day. Ever wonder why one particular kid makes the national news and others don’t?
Bottom line is, the national media could care less about the impact they have on all of us. They are no longer journalists.
The truth does not sell. Exciting stories about crime, corruption, wars, and disasters do.
So folks. We are now at a crossroads. There is a huge burden now put upon the ruling party and Biden who is so fond of quoting Lincoln now needs to quote Lincoln’s inaugural address or it is all over.
“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ it.
“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
—Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861
Callers? What do you think? Can cooler heads prevail or are we going to continue being led down a path of destruction by people who are in it just to make money?