Call It What It Is

Insurrection: “A violent uprising against an authority or government.” (online dictionary)

“The legal definition of insurrection falls under the same suite of federal laws as sedition, and the two can be difficult to distinguish.  …It means, essentially, to incite, assist in or engage in a full-on rebellion against the government, a step beyond just conspiring against it and requiring that significant violence be involved.” (the Marshall Project)

Words matter.

Tomorrow will be one year since the insurrection at the Capitol building. It was not a riot. It was not an uprising. It was not a disturbance. It was an insurrection. The goal was preventing the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another. The goal was overthrowing a legally elected leader. It is no coincidence there were Trump flags, stop the steal flags and a host of other misinformation touted on that day. It was incited and organized in many ways and on many levels. The legalities of it all will take years to determine.

It remains, however, that how we speak of it matters. Newscasters speak of tomorrow as the anniversary, as if it is something to be celebrated. Granted, we speak of the anniversary of other national tragedies in a similar way. To use the word “anniversary” with “riot” minimizes the enormity of what happened on January 6, 2021.

We do so at our own peril.

As a nation we have been here before:

• During the war of 1812, British forces briefly took control of Washington on August 24, 1814. They set fires throughout the Capitol, burned the White House and the headquarters of the War Department and the Treasury Department.
• There have been other incidences of violence at the Capitol, but most of them involved people with significant mental health issues, particular complaints about government policy or some aspect of how the government functioned.

What makes the January 6^th insurrection so different is the wide range of people who participated. In the crowd of insurrectionists were former and current military members, CEO’s who flew in their private jets, business owners, sitting members of Congress and many others who do not immediately come to mind as trying to overthrow the government.

Make no mistake; this event was representative of widespread domestic terrorism. It lives at many levels of society and encompasses most of American geography. Militia groups like the Proud Boys, the Neo-Confederate League of the South, Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters provided strategic and organizational structure for the insurrection. The vast majority of participants were NOT militia members and this is a troubling fact that warrants our close attention. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the January 6^th insurrection was the result of a year of careful planning, underground communication, and reaction to the Black Lives Matter protests that sprung up around the country after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. 

The boogaloo boys, whose mission is to incite civil war, took advantage of the protests to commit acts of violence against law enforcement. According to the SPLC, “a self-professed boogaloo boy and active duty Air Force Sergeant, Steven Carillo, allegedly committed a drive-by shooting against Federal Protective Services in California. One guard was killed and his partner was wounded. Eight days later, he ambushed law enforcement in Ben Lomond, killing Sergeant Damon Gutzwiller and injuring two other officers.” (Visit SPLC.org, and click on features and stories to learn more)

Much of the organizational activity of the last year was never reported. This in and of itself is disturbing. The media in general are misrepresenting the seriousness of the events of the last year and the implications for the future. The “liberal media” is too busy trying to be politically correct and the “conservative media” are fanning the flames to further the unrest.

Write letters to the editor and write to local and national news outlets. Make your voice heard. Unless we accurately describe what happened on January 6, 2021 we have no way of being adequately prepared for what comes next.