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I started the week feeling very anxious and depressed, really, the worst of the whole pandemic. I was upset about the slow rollout of the vaccines, the increasing case numbers, the Georgia elections and the certification vote today in congress to declare Biden the next president. I was feeling really homebound and worried and depressed about the future. But I decided to wait until Wednesday to write because I figured whatever I wrote Tuesday when I got my link would be outdated by Wednesday night. I certainly didn't predict how crazy the last 12 hours would be! It's now the evening of January 6th, a most remarkable day in US history. I think it will take us days to really process this, how easy it was for these people to storm the Capitol. How so many Republicans had to be personally threatened to finally say enough to Trump. Their hypocrisy is disgusting, that they could not stand up to him before they saw the impact of his rhetoric in person, that they are all so self-serving. All of those congress people and senators who were going to vote to not certify the election should be ashamed of themselves for perpetuating these lies. I live 6 miles from the US Capitol and have been down there many times over the last four years (pre-pandemic) for protests and demonstrations. So many questions are unanswered tonight. but especially this one; how were the US Capitol Police not prepared for the size and aggression of this mob? Or did they just not really care? Did they support the Trump supporters? The double standard for white Trump protesters, vs. BLM and climate change protests is remarkable. Meanwhile, we got the best gift ever this afternoon: two democratic senators from Georgia and the US Senate!!!. I feel like the nation owes the people of Georgia a great debt--ADIOS to Mitch McConnell as majority leader, and hopefully now we'll have some serious legislative reform to turn "Norms" into rules or laws so that another crazy person like Trump can't bend the law to his will. Who would have ever guessed that the southern segregationist state of Georgia would turn out to save U.S. Democracy? (Note to self: next vacation go spend money in Georgia NOT Florida!) In other good news, my daughter, who is a nursing student and going to do her final practicum this spring, got a call today that she is eligible for the vaccine. I'm so happy for her and every other medical worker that they are first in line, and that the roll-out, although slow, is more or less going okay here in my state. My husband, who works in a public school, will also be eligible soon. When people you know are getting the vaccine, it makes the end of all of this much more concrete. I've been binge watching a show about the US government getting blown up in the Capitol. Very weird to watch a government falling apart on TV, and then in real life too. Hopefully both will have a better ending than beginning.
January 8, 2021