Monday we in the United States celebrate the
life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Pretty sure that’s gotta bite for the white
supremacists out there hiding from the knock of FBI agents on their door after
their attempted coup last week. Here in the Old Dominion it was denoted as
Lee-Jackson-King day until recently.
My earworm for today is “His Eye Is On the
Sparrow”, a gospel song written in 1905 by Civilla D. Martin. I’m giving you
Gladys Knight singing it at a Kennedy Center performance honoring King.
Welp,
we are at The Mouse That Roared stage of our political life.
Yesterday,
soon-to-be-ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo canceled his final taxpayer-funded
junket to Europe because the Foreign Minister of the Duchy of Luxembourg told
him he wouldn’t be received.
Over
the past week, Pompeo has been trying to buff up his future political prospects
with a flock of mendacious tweets on his official government account bragging
about his (non-existent) “accomplishments” as secretary. Back when he replaced
Tillerson, he decided that the department had lost its “swagger” and announced
he would restore it. All last week’s tweets were hashtagged #swagger. Including
one that was ludicrous in the extreme:
(There was another one, in which he asseverated that the United States is safer now than it was four years ago; yes, there was.)
Well,
yesterday, Luxembourg led the way in telling Pompeo where to go. Luxembourg,
the place to register your shell corporation if you don’t want any of that
pesky government or tax oversight into your business. The day after the coup
attempt on the Capitol, Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn referred to Cadet
Bonespurs as a “criminal” and a “political pyromaniac”, so you can understand
why he wouldn’t want to pose for a photo op with the pyromaniac’s purveyor of
petrol. Leaders of the European Union and NATO, on which Bonespurs and Pompeo
have been whizzing for the past few years, also declined to entertain him this
week.
So,
instead of gripping and grinning across Western Europe, Pompeo says he’s
focusing on transition activities. Which, before Luxembourg slammed the door in
his face, evidently were meant to perk along nicely without him.
And,
on the home front (as it were), the Joint Chiefs of Staff have issued a
military-wide memo condemning the Capitol attack and affirming that on 20
January, Joe Biden will be the commander-in-chief, so no shenanigans.
I mean—in
a single day, the Secretary of State was sat down by Luxembourg and the heads
of the armed forces had to remind everyone in uniform that we are a nation of
laws, not thugs.
A
while ago I was browsing skin care products on Amazon. Normally my eyes don’t
even pause on sponsored items or the “customers also looked at” suggestions. (Seriously,
I just don’t see any ads on any website anymore.) However, for some reason,
this caught my attention, and I don't know why, because they're all black blurs on my laptop screen:
I’m
thinking that Amazon’s algorithm went very wrong.
Unless Amazon thinks my skin needs a really deep cleaning?
Whew—what a week, eh? If you’re reading this,
you and I have lived through the Pennsylvania Avenue Putsch. It remains to be
seen what consequences the rioters and their political allies will suffer; at a
minimum, a lotta law enforcement folks gotta lotta ‘splainin’ to do about why
the Capitol was left nearly defenseless on an extremely important work day.
I’d personally like to hear from those posturing
asshats Dan Crenshaw and Matt Gaetz about how they personally defended the
country from insurrectionists. Especially if Nestor was in danger.
Also—impeach the motherfucker already. Again.
But there are two stories that emerged from that
horror show, stories that reminded me that for every aggrieved, screeching Confederate
flag-waving loser about to become friends with their worst nightmare in gen
pop, there are dedicated, humble, good people who represent the best in
us.
The first story is about Representative Andy
Kim, Democrat, of New Jersey. In the early hours of Thursday morning, after the
Joint Session reconvened and certified the election, the son of Korean
immigrants walked outside the chamber and looked at all the rubbish left by the
insurrectionists on the rotunda floor. Janitors and National Guard members were
picking it up, so he asked for a trash bag, got down on the floor and started
clearing it away. The photo taken by AP’s Andrew Harnik, makes me weep even
now.
“When you see something you love that’s broken,
you want to fix it,” he said. “I love the Capitol. I’m honored to be there.
This building is extraordinary and the rotunda in particular is just
awe-inspiring. How many countless generations have been inspired in that room?
It really broke my heart and I just felt compelled to do something…What else
could I do?”
I take this message seriously—when something you
love is broken, you want to fix it. Even if it means getting down on your hands
and knees and sweeping trash into bags after an exceptionally hard day at work.
The second story is about the Chaplain of the
House of Representatives, Rear Admiral Margaret Kibben, for whom Wednesday was
her third day on the job. As the mob swarmed closer to the chamber, a House aide
asked Kibben if she’d say a prayer. Kibben, a combat veteran, took the
microphone and asked God for “covering”. “
“It was a matter of
asking for God’s covering and a hedge of protection around us,” she said, “And
that in the chaos, the spirit would descend in the room to offer us peace and
order. That we would look to care for each other, even as we are under stress.”
As the Chamber was evacuated, she continued, seeking
out people who looked particularly distressed. In the secure room where they
ended up, Kibben read from Psalm 46, ““God is our refuge and strength, a very present
help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.” And then again prayed for
a “covering peace and shelter”.
I think we could all take comfort from the
notion of a covering peace, and I am grateful for that message emerging from
such a gawdawful day.
I’m leaving you with one more thing, from a
rather unexpected source (kind of like control of the Senate coming via...Georgia): Arnold Schwarzenegger recorded his thoughts on the
insurrection, and it’s a succinct, heartfelt summary of the stakes.
When he speaks of the Servant’s Heart, I think of
Kim and Kibben. When he speaks of tempering the blade, it gives me hope. For
which I am grateful.
