On television yesterday, I heard comments alluding to January 6, 2021. The usual cast of characters, but that’s neither here nor there. It was wrong to compare January 6 to September 11, 2001, December 7, 1941, WWII as a whole, the Holocaust, and slavery.
There is no comparison to an attack on the country that kills over 2000 using planes as flying missiles without warning. It is not even close to four jetliners turned into flying missiles, hitting three buildings and another location, resulting in the death of 2977 Americans; 2403 killed in a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor; 419,000 Americans in WWII; 6M-11,000,000 during the Holocaust. Slavery is more difficult because of the about 12.5 million from Africa; 388,000 were brought to the now United States. The death rate was 14.5%, so to America, the number is 56,260.
One person died as a direct result of violence on January 6, 2021. Using the other events as a comparison is illogical. As the scale, what is known as J6 was a small riot.
It wasn’t just the media. Certain politicians joined in giving divisive speeches, blaming then-President Trump and, in some cases, those who supported him. It’s been called an insurrection even though, to my knowledge, no one was armed, no one has been charged with insurrection, and by definition, it wasn’t one.
Were the actions of January 6 justified? No. Without wanting to sound like a whataboutism, was the 2020 summer of rioting resulting in death and destruction an insurrection or rioting? After all, there was much more death and destruction.
Yesterday could have been a time of healing. Unfortunately, it wasn’t, as it did not seem to be a goal. I used the word divisive because it is. It may also be a diversion to how poorly the country is doing or how well it will do in the future.
