I happened to be born on Jan 20th, 1984, so I'll be turning 37 next Wednesday.
I've been thinking on it a lot since, you know, the other things in the world are happening.
I was thinking on what to wish for. Something impossible maybe, but something that I really wanted.
For me, all I really want is honesty from our leaders.
The U.S. democracy is nearly in complete tatters as a violent overthrow of the government was just attempted.
The assault directly led to the death of 5 people, including a Capitol Officer, potentially two suicides, and the stress, anxiety and tension the bulk of the country who voted to end the Trump reign via peaceful transition of power, now feel.
It was the final step, an illegal one, where the President clearly invited to the Capitol those that believed in the lie that he created; one where he had won the vote instead of lost and the election was stolen from him.
Despite being told repeatedly that he had lost the election (because all evidence suggests that he did), Trump made up a fictional reality (a lie) in his very faulty mind, where he had won the election and that the other side had cheated him.
He got others with a prominent public platform to peddle this lie to those that would be the most susceptible audience to believe it, those that already loved him.
This moment, this flashing point, is where people begin to believe what is called by scholars of Facism and political movements as a "Big Lie." It is a moment where we can either continue the fostering of the Lie and likely increase the chances for violence and radicalization, or we can tell the truth.
The truth by all those that were involved in the counting and processing of the votes, that were there for every legal challenge to the voting system both before and after, was that the process was legal, free and fair, and the outcome was that Joe Biden was elected President.
I understand, the feeling that things didn't go your way because of this reason or that reason. My God do I know that feeling.
There were reasons, obviously, that Trump won the election in 2016, that many found objectionable, including the participation of Russian contacts and criminals working within the Trump administration to get him elected to, at the very least, sew as much unrest within America as possible.
Still, after the 2016 election, Trump and his family were invited to the White House by the still sitting President to offer a peaceful transition of power. Those stunned Clinton supporters, or simply progressives that couldn't yet fathom an openly racist and misogynistic fraud would be elected, did NOT storm the capitol to protest with weapons and handcuffs.
Instead, the day after Trump was inaugurated, millions of people the WORLD over went to the streets in the Women's March, a protest that would end up being the largest in American history to reject the misogynists and bigots of the world and the importance of women's rights that they felt would be endangered by a man who proudly admits to his sexual assaults privately, while lying about it publicly.
The truth by all those that were involved in the counting and processing of the votes, that were there for every legal challenge to the voting system both before and after, was that the process was legal, free and fair, and the outcome was that Joe Biden was elected President.
I understand, the feeling that things didn't go your way because of this reason or that reason. My God do I know that feeling.
There were reasons, obviously, that Trump won the election in 2016, that many found objectionable, including the participation of Russian contacts and criminals working within the Trump administration to get him elected to, at the very least, sew as much unrest within America as possible.
Still, after the 2016 election, Trump and his family were invited to the White House by the still sitting President to offer a peaceful transition of power. Those stunned Clinton supporters, or simply progressives that couldn't yet fathom an openly racist and misogynistic fraud would be elected, did NOT storm the capitol to protest with weapons and handcuffs.
Instead, the day after Trump was inaugurated, millions of people the WORLD over went to the streets in the Women's March, a protest that would end up being the largest in American history to reject the misogynists and bigots of the world and the importance of women's rights that they felt would be endangered by a man who proudly admits to his sexual assaults privately, while lying about it publicly.
Since then, there has been a rapid decline in trust and a rise in animosity, a clear recipe for disaster in the public square.
It has to stop.
It has to stop.
I want to write the thing here that makes everyone calm, that makes us look back and say, "This is what happened, and this was why"
It starts with telling the truth.
The truth is Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
The truth is while Trump has a near zealotry following among some, the overwhelming majority of the Nation want him gone.
If this truth can overcome the loudest Big Lie since Hitler's Germany, then we may yet stand a chance to quickly reclaim our democracy and begin to govern ourselves in far better terms.
But we must stay engaged to do it.
So if you took the time to read this little essay, I would ask one more small thing of you as a birthday present to me.
It starts with telling the truth.
The truth is Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
The truth is while Trump has a near zealotry following among some, the overwhelming majority of the Nation want him gone.
If this truth can overcome the loudest Big Lie since Hitler's Germany, then we may yet stand a chance to quickly reclaim our democracy and begin to govern ourselves in far better terms.
But we must stay engaged to do it.
So if you took the time to read this little essay, I would ask one more small thing of you as a birthday present to me.
Please keep telling the truth about the election. Tell the story of how Joe Biden, flawed as he is, was still FAR, FAR more preferable to most people than another 4 years of Trump.
It would be the best present of all; the presence of truth.
