Mob

 The mob that stormed the Capitol is not the tens of millions of Americans who voted for Trump. The mob is a fringe group--large and militant—whose mentality allows them to be incited by an unprincipled man like Donald Trump.

If we ask ourselves how this can happen in America, we can begin to understand the dimensions of the task of healing which is before us. We became lazy, self-centered and materialistic as a country. We allowed a government to develop that put partisanship above problem solving, that put loyalty to the party over loyalty to the Constitution, that let party excuse failures of leadership and integrity.

The idea of personal freedom became so distorted that responsibility and the freedom of others was obscured. In the wealthiest country on earth, problems with drugs, alcohol, mental illness, violence and sexual misdeeds were harming way too many people.

The efforts to ensure freedom and equality to all Americans were not seen as the  right thing to do; but were seen by many as an assault on their values. For many, fear became the factor that determined the way they saw the country moving. Fear and ignorance trapped them in a vision of the world that could not accept or understand change.

To be honest, there are traditional Republican values that brought citizens to vote for Donald Trump the Republican, but not understand what he had done to the Republican Party. They felt they were not  being heard, and Donald Trump heard them. In fact, he didn’t hear them. He used them

So, in my estimation, here we are. We can’t stay here, but we all have a part to play in where we go.