Originally Posted on Facebook on January 7, 2021

I have been thinking about what happened yesterday in our nation’s capital. Opinions and terms thrown around in the mainstream media and on social media to describe the events and characterize the role people played have been swirling around in my mind.

Not to be debated, the violence that occurred yesterday in our nations capital was abhorrent…a disgusting display of mob mentality. I, at a distance, was viscerally sick to my stomach and frightened. I can only imagine the fear that our representatives felt while their persons were under assault. The violence must be condemned in no uncertain terms. What happened yesterday was an assault on our democracy as protestors, turned insurrectionists, sought to interfere with a legitimate democratic process to debate the validity ( no matter how ill conceived) of the recent election in a few states…a peaceful, ordered and constitutional debate by our representatives that has taken place in prior elections…none of which occasioned the violence we saw yesterday.

News reports this morning suggest that the crowd had been infiltrated by a few anarchists bent on fomenting the violence (pipe bombs have been found indicating premeditation) that occurred yesterday, similar to protests over the past summer. The difference was that instead of covering their face with black masks to hide their identity they hid in a crowd in the bright light of day and wrapped themselves in the American flag. That in no way excuses the rest of the crowd that followed their lead.

People, in discussing the role the President played yesterday, are throwing around terms like treason and sedition and suggesting that the President incited the violence and should thus be held accountable. It is true that the President incited people to protest what he characterized as a stolen election. But, objectively, “inciting people to protest” is not the same as “inciting people to commit violence”.

The difference between the two has been adjudicated by the Supreme Court in varying free speech cases brought before it over the years. More specifically, “in Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969), a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court interpreting the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Court held that the government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless that speech is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.” Again, inciting people to protest, a protected constitutional right, is not the same as inciting them to commit violence.

Some are also calling the President’s actions ”seditious”. Sedition is defined as inciting or causing people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch. There is no doubt the President incited people to protest and that he encouraged his proxies through the legislature to use any constitutional means available to overturn the election. That is, however, a far cry from sedition which by definition speaks to overthrowing a government outside of a constitutional construct. No matter our disgust with the President’s demeanor and what happened yesterday we need to be careful with the words we use to describe what took place or to characterize a person’s intent. Words have meaning. Which brings me to the issue of personal responsibility.

As we lament the death of four protestors yesterday, one who was shot by security personnel and the others due to medical emergencies, some have laid sole responsibility at the President’s feet. (For sure he is responsible for fostering the environment and creating the opportunity for the violence which occurred and he should be condemned for that.) They seek to excuse these individuals’ personal responsibility for their own fate by saying their judgement was co-opted by the President’s rhetoric. That is insulting to these individuals’ intelligence and personal motivations. The one individual who was shot was previously a member of the military. No one can reasonably assert that she did not know that storming the Capitol, destroying government property and, in effect, threatening the safety and lives of our elected representatives was going to result in anything but the possibility of a violent confrontation with those charged with protecting our seat of government and our legislators. Her unfortunate lapse in judgment is no one’s fault but her own.

The past four years have been divisive. Responsibility for that divisiveness falls on all of us…it certainly includes the media, our elected representatives, and the President. No one is without fault. Simply pointing the finger and blaming others abdicates our own responsibility and is simply disingenuous. We should be able to engage in debate around issues, without it devolving into personal attacks and rancor.

Our collective behavior over the past four years has created the environment and opportunity for those who seek to create chaos to insert themselves into the body politic and threaten our republic. We can and must do better as we move forward. If we cannot or simply choose not to, we risk our democracy and the future of our children and grandchildren.