Like so many others, I have watched the events unfolding in our nation’s Capitol with utter amazement. In the aftermath, I have read countless articles and perspectives about what should be done and who should be held accountable. I have heard from friends around the world who are mourning the state in which this country has found itself, with an inherent belief that the United States is supposed to be better than this.
The facts of the riots in the Capitol this past week leave me at a loss for words, but they also offer a bit of relief because they are unifying. Symbols give words to that which is otherwise too abstract or difficult to explain. The last four years have been so horrifying that it is difficult speak about. How do you tell the story? What examples do you use? Children locked up at the border; Acceptance of rape, assault and locker room talk with an understanding that boys will be boys; entitlement in place of service and selfishness depicted as a value; the empowerment of racists; the censorship of free speech; the attack of the press; the permission to discount history and remain uneducated; the celebration of behaviors that are associated with the worst bullies – the list goes on and on. . . There are just too many descriptors to the horror.
But now we have one: an assault on the Capitol – at the direction of the man who calls himself The President. The pictures we have seen are defining.
Symbols bring us together – they unite us beyond words. Now this country is ready to move on. Now we see that we must move on.
The question I have asked many times, including in this forum, is what people will do with all this anger? How will they transcend the entitlement they bear, especially if they cannot see it as such?
I wonder, if perhaps it is helpful if we begin to rethink the idea of accountability?
This is the moment when we allow ourselves to be held accountable.
To hold someone accountable, I would like propose, should not be associated with discipline or punishment, but with celebration. We ask that people account for what they have done; and most of us try to see the good in others. As a result, we are challenged in this moment to take an accounting for what has been achieved and for the people who have risen above the fray. These are the actions that need to claim our headlines; let our silence to the rest be our condemnation.
Typically, most people do not like to be held accountable because they do not want to hold a mirror to their potential. This is the anger of those we have seen on our screens over last few days: the anger of what they have become, and the belief that someone else is to blame. As they punish themselves before the judgement of the world, our challenge is to hold up a light that can outshine their darkness, and hold accountable those who give us reason to celebrate. . . or as it turns out, allow ourselves to be held accountable to their actions.
I have often said over these past four years that I do think Donald Trump will live up to his slogan of making America great again – not because of him, but in spite of him. On January 20th, the United States will have survived the most insidious attack any democracy could endure: the elected that becomes the entitled; the president that becomes the monarch. In doing so, the United States will prove that it has the capacity for greatness.
This is our moment when we unify to celebrate the best of us; when we lift up their example rather than the example of those who only bring us sadness and horror. It is time to move on, a little wiser than we were before.