Happy 2021...

Like every other American, I'm going to grumble about (or, on the audio, be cartoonishly blasé about) "Democracy Demolition Night" (Caravella, Navarro, & Bakalar, 2021), the dumbest coup attempt of the year. We have time for one more coup attempt before president #46! Maybe the feds will read the right forums next time (Tally & Levy, 2021). All I'll say about the attention addicts who tossed the Capitol is that I hope their cars stall in the middle of a forest in subzero temperatures during their drive home, and a moose gets its tongue stuck to their road-salt-covered vehicle.

For a summary of the 2021 electoral college certification ceremony and the interrupting mob, read the National Public Radio article "Timeline: How One of the Darkest Days in American History Unfolded" (Monanaro, 2021).

News accounts are focusing on the pipe bombs, the property damage, the terrorized elected officials, and the conspiracy theories. They're ignoring the many people who were working at the Capitol when the mob arrived and just... did their jobs anyway. That's the kind of people, and characters, I’m interested in hearing more about.

I want to point you toward two vivid accounts of Capitol journalists' experiences on the 6th. The first is a set of interviews with three New York Times reporters who were there, presented by The Daily in high-quality audio (Barbaro, 2021). Two of those busy journalists also contributed to this article (linked through the Wayback Machine to skip the paywall) describing how first the mob, then the Capitol police, attacked photographer Erin Schaff for documenting the chaos more effectively than the Trump supporters with their cell phone cameras. These journalists were, again, skilled professionals at their workplace doing the job of informing the public about the national election process.

The second group of Americans who are substantially less awful than everybody else in the Capitol on Wednesday were the staff who saved the electoral college ballot boxes. The senate chamber was playing host to these beautiful and flammable boxes which contained the certificates of each state's electoral votes. Destroying those might've delayed the election process for a few more hours while lawmakers agreed to use the digital copies of the results. Also, those pretty boxes represent the limited autonomy we have over choosing our national leadership. Everybody left them in the senate chamber while they fled the armed insurgents.

Everybody except the people described by various sources as "aides" (Woodward, 2021) or "floor staff" (Merkley, 2021), who either grabbed the electoral college boxes on their way out the door or went back for them after the senate chamber was already evacuated. I hope somebody figures out who these people are and gives them the medals they deserve. They saved us from yet more wasted time on posturing politicians, and preserved some lovely national symbols. Give them any job they want after this.

So, that's my reminder that there were actual heroes at the Capitol on January 6th, and they didn't wear costumes, red hats, or uniforms. While hundreds of cops and rioters milled around in the halls of power, these Americans took the opportunity to do the jobs they agreed to do and made the world slightly better. Our giant, violent, ridiculous, diseased country contains multitudes. Happy 2021.

Text-only edit to add: Okay, let's also give a medal to the Capital police officer featured in this Twitter thread. Pretty sure he saved some lives.

References

R. E. Stearns