On the Eve...

Well, CTC fam, it’s been a minute. The last time I wrote, it was with excitement. It was with the drive to keep on keepin’ on. To take what we’ve done the last few years and honor the legacies of those who came before us by not letting up. The day this was posted, was the day White supremacists tried to overthrow our government to honor the legacy of those who came before them. January 6, 2021 was a day America showed itself to us in all its ugliness, hatred, and bigotry. It was not an event, like many noted, that did not demonstrate who we are. It was in fact, exactly who we are and who we have always been. I will add it was a day political scientists warned would come since Donald Trump rode down that golden elevator in June 2015. He was the kindling and the match and the oxygen. And he was impeached for it. While Donald Trump caused the insurrection, he did not create the “why” of it. The insurrection was not about a stolen election. It was about a stolen country. Stolen power. Stolen status. It was about White supremacy -- the bedrock of our never-whole democracy. On the eve of another bedrock of our democracy, the peaceful transition of power between administrations, I feel much like I did almost 12 years ago to the minute. 

I was lucky enough to attend Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. In a sea of people on the National Mall, I was hopeful and fearful. I remember feeling this exact mix for the first time when I saw then Senator Obama speak on Penn State’s campus in the spring of 2008. I was inches away from this magnetic inspirer, hanging on his words and soaking up the energy. At some point I looked up to the cloudless, blue sky and caught a glimpse of the same thing on every roof of every nearby building: snipers. In that moment, the wave hit. The “oh my God someone might come here to kill the Black presidential candidate” thought literally took the breath out of me. Both naïveté and privilege kept me from that reality until I saw people with guns sent to protect this man who had not even secured the Democratic nomination yet. Months later, among hundreds of thousands of people in Washington, D.C, the wave again. The simultaneous hope and fear.

I sit here now, on the eve of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ inauguration both hopeful and fearful. Don’t get me wrong, I am relieved that, as of my writing, President-elect and Vice President-elect will drop the elect in less than 24 hours. I feel like I might be able to take a breath for the first time in four years. I am encouraged by the representation of the Cabinet, the progressive first 100 days plan, and the vaccine roll out. I am elated Donald Trump will no longer have the pardon power and the nuclear codes. Yet, I also know that for the time Vice President-elect Harris, and then Vice President Harris is on that dais, I will be holding my breath for a different reason. I will be looking for the snipers on roofs. 

For me, the cover image sums it up.

The fact that we need 25,000 National Guard troops to ensure a literal peaceful transition of power should not make us feel safe. It should make us angry. The fact that security kept a man with weapons and ammo and a fake inauguration credential from getting into the secure area should not make us feel grateful. It should make us livid. Peace with military protection is not peace; it is the opposite. It is indicative of more than just partisan and political tension; it is indicative of the power and privilege of White supremacy. While overused, especially in the days around Martin Luther King Day, Dr. King’s famous quote is more relevant than ever: “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” 

But here’s what: the domestic terrorists who stormed the Capitol looking to hang Vice President Pence and kill Speaker Pelosi were doing it in the name of justice. They were told to take their country back with strength, trial by combat, and by kicking ass and taking names. Interview after interview after interview (with what I think is the purest and scariest account here) makes clear that these insurrectionists believed they were patriots who were saving the country that has always served them from those it never has. They were justice keepers and defenders. They were lauded as special people whom the president loves. They were this nation’s great White hope. For them, true peace is the lack of justice for those not like them. True peace is MAGA. And if the great orange hope is no longer the president, then what is to become of them?

As I fast-forward less than 24 hours, I can picture a new-ish day in America. The literal picture will look different, yes. And that is not nothing. Not nothing at all. But like I said in the last post:  

“We know this is America. One election. Dozens of newly elected and appointed government officials. A few good speeches. These will not overturn the last four years, let alone the last 400.” 

January 6, 2021 was a stark reminder of how true this is.

So, when President Biden and Vice President Harris leave the dais, and assume their duties to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution so help them God, some of us begin with exhaling because she survived. And then, we watch us move (though slow) and continue to work toward real justice. 

Author: Dr. Suzanne Chod