Enough is Enough — Assault on the Capitol, January 6, 2021

“Enough is enough,” said Joe Biden.

No one could make up this stuff!

I was in a Zoom class. I got a message on my watch: “Disruption at the U.S. Capitol.” Normally media hypes everything. This time it was underreported. This was a “storming of the Bastille” almost literally, except this was America and our Capitol. And it was instigated by the leader of our country and the free world.

How could such a thing happen? By now I don’t have to go into the details. For my generation, like the assasinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK, the space shuttle disaster and 9-11, we remember where we were when we heard the news, and the news was constant. January 6th, which I called, even before I heard Senator Shumer say, “a day that will live in infamy” seemed to be just one more freakish thing in a series of bizarre occurrences this past year, nay five years.

I don’t know what to say, but I did have to write something. As I have said, it almost seems like history repeating itself, as far back as Biblical times — the plagues of Egypt — get out your pinkies: Fires, hurricanes, unusual weather in general (hot/cold, floods, early snows, volcanos, earthquakes), climate changes, killer hornets, police brutality, violence in the streets and of course the biggie — COVID-19 with its manifestations.

Now yesterday. As Rome was burning, Nero played golf, fiddled music to egg his minions on while he stayed home and wrote tweets. People are talking about the 25th Amendment. I want to talk TREASON — intentionally trying to hurt this most amazing country, as our enemies are trying to do. Our friends were shocked and sympathized, maybe even thinking “if it can happen there…”

Back in 2015-16, I said this was Germany in the 1930s. I unfortunately was right but could not have conceived the events that followed. Evil, stupidity and mental illness is an unbelievable cocktail.

In the 1950s when Eisenhower ran against Stevenson for the presidency, my parents were Democrats so I naturally followed and have remained so my whole life. However, when good Republicans were offered, (New York Senator Javitz and Maryland’s Mathias), I voted Republican. There are still good Republicans. Probably those that rampaged were neither, just opportunists that caught mob fever. Were any wearing masks? Now we will have a surge, upon surge, upon surge!

We will survive, we have in the past, but the cost has been high. It seemed as if David Muir on the evening news had cried. Questions have abounded. Anxiety has been high. In New York City today, January 7th, traffic was unusually bad (maybe we are just not used to it for the last nine months) because of all the police cars lined up. Can they protect us? Yesterday it took a village of enforcement at the Capitol and much time.

The best that we can wish for from any event is that we grow, learn and improve through actions not just words. Thank you for your patience in reading these quickly written thoughts and emotions. Let’s talk and listen to each other.

Read more by Ada Mark Strausberg.