A woman, a wife, a widow named Ramona, carried half a dozen yards of lace over her outstretched arms. Even though it was black — freshly dyed and washed once for starch — it looked dull in the sun. Gray and ashy like her skin. 
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The summer heat played along. The liquid from the washing tub had sizzled against the backyard rocks, but the light itself pale. Limp and lifeless. 
Ramona swallowed a lump - the sensation painful and unsatisfying.  

After 1,275 steps, she arrived at the gate to the apiary. 

It, too, played the color game, she noticed. It’s bright red looked muddy and sad. It looked like old blood staining the barnyard floor. The hinges creaked as they opened, and even though Ramona flinched at the metal scream - the keeper didn’t seem to notice the protest.  

“Be calm,” he said. His voice low, sweet, and slow like the jar of honey back on the breakfast table.  

She nodded and entered the precious space and walked over to the large hive. 

She cleared her throat.  

The man snuck up and tapped her shoulder, shushing when she startled. “They’ll listen.”

Ramona bent down low, grimacing at the sound of the little wings, the sight of the pale yellow bodies. Their black was dark, though — rich, which surprised her. “I’m here to tell you…” her voice caught, but she didn’t want the keeper to touch her again.

“I’m here to tell you that the master of the house has passed,” she whispered. Her breath filled the air between her and the bees, and she swore that they slowed down to listen. “I have your veil to help you mourn,” she said, and after a long moment, she finished her errand, “and hope that you’ll stay with us.”

In the silence that followed, Ramona found her shoulders sliding downward. The tiny buzzing creatures did not respond to superstitious voices, but they were soothing in their own busy way. 

In the early hours of November 10, 1898 a fire grew on the grounds of The Daily Record in Wilmington, North Carolina. This fire signaled the start of a coordinated attack by a mob of white men who targeted The Daily Record due to it being a prominent black-owned business. Alexander Manly, the owner, had been told to destroy the paper and get out of town, or the mob would do it for him. 

By the end of the day 60 black residents were dead, the newspaper building had burned to the ground, and many black citizens had fled for their lives. The attack was a coordinated effort by white supremacists to remove black influence and retake political power for Democrats, the conservative party of the late 1890s, and which represented the values of white supremacists. The leader of the attack, Alfred Moore Waddell, was a former member of Congress, and would go on to become Mayor of Wilmington. 

Two days prior to the coup d’etat the local government had been elected, and the Republican party, the liberal party of the era, was largely in control. Upset with the circumstances, Waddell and his mob decided to take matters into their own hands. Rather than respect a free election, they decided their values were more important. They imposed their will by force, and succeeded. 

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Last week we witnessed the echoes of history on a massive scale. A mob formed, masked to the world as protestors. They listened to President Trump and other conservative politicians. They heard about how the election had been stolen. They believed in lies, and spurred on by carefully worded hints and nods the mob moved towards the Capitol building. The symbol of American freedom, American dreams, American ideals. 

“What happened today was an insurrection incited by the President.”  - Mitt Romney

Upset with the election results,  and with Democrats, America’s liberal party, taking full control of the Presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives these criminals rushed police and broke into the Capitol building to stop the confirmation of Joseph Biden’s Presidential win, convinced that the election had been stolen. 

They battled with the Capitol Police, injuring at least 56 police officers, and killing Officer Brian D. Sicknick. Four members of the mob died, one shot by the police, the other three from “medical emergencies.” Video and photos showed mobsters being maced, having guns drawn on them. Separately officers were spotted taking selfies with the criminals, helping them down the steps of the capitol building, and observing as the mob walked around casually. 

Bombs, guns, destruction of property, videos of a lone officer running as the mob rushed him - these are the acts, the symbols, the definition of terrorists and terrorism. Domestic or not,  white or not, the people who attacked the Capitol were terrorists. They stormed the seat of government of the United States with the intent to overthrow the outcome of the election. Holding onto the words of a false god, thinking they bore the torch of righteousness, these terrorists tried to stage “a revolution” as one maced women said to a camera. 

While many have tried, there is no comparison to the protests we have seen in relation to social issues like police brutality, or the rights of citizens based on name-a-category. While people may disagree with people exercising their freedom of speech to burn American Flags, or block highways, that can’t be compared with breaking into a government building. To those who try and compare the destruction of private property to an attempted coup - the literal attempt to overtake the government - may I introduce you to the False Equivalence logical fallacy. Someone throwing a brick through a Costco window is not the same as halting the Presidential certification to keep President Trump in power. 

Apples to oranges doesn’t cover it. Apples and oranges are at least pieces of fruit. There is no similarity here. The opposition to a free and fair election is the stuff of freedom’s nightmares. To keep a President in power, even after losing an election, because the President pretends to hold onto the values you hold is not what the US Constitution protects. The Constitution upholds a government that elects representatives to make laws for us, a democratic Republic, a government that protects, in theory, the right for us to have our own religion, our own values. For citizens to rise up and attempt to force their values on other citizens by violent means is a theocracy. And as much as some Americans may want a theocracy, America, as set up by its founding documents, is not one. 

The difference between someone shouting, “Black Lives Matter!” and rifling through elected leader’s offices, leaving threatening notes, breaking windows, and swapping out the American Flag for a flag that says the name of one man, is so vast that only the severely indoctrinated won’t be able to spot the contrast. 

What’s worse is the President of the United States knew that this protest was scheduled. He knew that he had stirred the hearts of many to believe that Democrats were stealing the election from right under all our noses. He had access to all the information possible that indicates that such diversionary tactics, such a drive to nationalism, to the extreme, causes violence. Instead of ensuring proper methods of security to protect the presidential certification, he denied multiple requests to mobilize the National Guard. Eventually his Vice President had to take charge when the violence escalated. 

Then, and only after President-elect Biden demanded it, Trump put out a message to “quell” the terrorists.

It’s two thousand and eight, you’re a teenager at Hot Topic, and you love nothing more in this world than Gerard Way.
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