On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol was attacked. While those in the mob committed the crimes and destruction, the attack was encouraged and incited by President Donald Trump in a fit of immaturity and pettiness. It’s scary to see that the man—who supposedly stands for laws that are America’s foundation—could incite insurrection.
President Trump said to his crowd, “We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol…We’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones…the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
Surrounded by a myriad of networks and opinions about current events, high school students have found it incredibly hard to cope with the obvious lack of law-enforcement initiative in the response to the Capitol attack.
“If people are storming the Capitol Building with hopes of political revenge, that would qualify as terrorism.”
Joey Kauffman ’23
Fifth Former Quinn Luong said, “The double standard of white supremacy is clearly exhibited with the insurrection, and how these white men could climb up a whole entire wall, but if they were Black Lives Matter protesters, they wouldn’t have gotten so far. This is who we are, and it is a wake-up call to what America really is as a society.”
It’s incredibly worrying to see the contrast between how America responds to domestic terrorism versus the peaceful protests of this past summer. A distinction must be made about terrorism versus rioting.
Fourth Former Joey Kauffman said, “If people are storming the Capitol Building with hopes of political revenge, that would qualify as terrorism.”
An act of terrorism, commited by American citizens at the nation’s capitol, saw the vast majority of perpetrators walk away unharmed, but peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters were hit and beat whilst being, most of the time, hundreds of miles away from the President and members of the Congress.
Many students have reacted with disappointment in regards to what the President has done.
Sixth Former Ryan Ngo said, “Obviously, with all the history of using violence to push a political agenda, I thought that we were past that—that it was something I’d been reading about in my history books. Seeing that in the society we live in is just shocking.
“Impeaching and convicting Trump sends a message that this country does understand the relevance and harm of his actions and is finally willing to do something about it
Roch Parayre ’23
After inciting insurrection, the House impeached the sitting President, but it is unclear whether the Senate will convict him. Many worry that if Trump is indeed convicted, the country will face great division.
Fourth Former Roch Parayre said, “Impeaching and convicting Trump sends a message that this country does understand the relevance and harm of his actions and is finally willing to do something about it. I completely think that the numerous benefits outweigh the very few negatives.”
Another one of the aforementioned negatives of impeachment is an increased chance of an attack at President-Elect Biden’s inauguration.
To this, Parayre said, “At this point, anything not in the favor of Trump supporters will increase the likelihood of an attack at Biden’s inauguration, but convicting Trump would serve this country in the long-term and establish that insinuating an attack on this country’s most precious building is anything but okay.”
There’s no hiding from the facts: The nation’s Capitol was attacked by an angry mob of Trump supporters, and they were allowed to walk out of the building unharmed. America must open its eyes to the truth, and work towards a more fair and equal system. This event should go down in history not only as one of the nation’s biggest disgraces, but also the moment when America opened its eyes to the truth.
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