In the 10 years that I was privileged to represent the 1st District of Georgia in the United States Congress, I lived in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol in an old building owned by the United Methodist Church located between the U.S. Supreme Court and the Senate Office buildings.
In the fall, I would collect acorns from the historic oaks on the Capitol grounds and plant them on my farm near Screven. Today, I enjoy the beauty and shade of those mature offspring, and the joy of sharing the acorns and seedlings from them with my friends and the deer and squirrels as well.
I never ceased to be awed by the beauty and history of the building itself and learned enough to share my knowledge with the many constituents who came to visit my office and tour the Capitol.
Our federal laws are made in that building. Laws designed to reflect the concerns, hopes, and needs of citizens of our great nation. It is a difficult, never-ending process of crafting compromise from the great diversity of the American enterprise and its people. That compromise gives instruction to the agencies that carry out those directions. Not a single law passed fails to raise varied reactions of support and objection from the varied facets of America’s citizenry.
Inexplicable violence came to the people’s Capitol last month. Property was destroyed, lives were lost, and the sanctity of the people’s Capitol was debauched before the eyes of our allies and our enemies.
I am no stranger to protest. I was both a participant in the farm demonstrations of the late 1970s, and was often a spokesman for that cause. I came to Washington to join farmers from across our nation in protest of the impact national farm policy was having on America’s farmers. Our nation’s leaders met with us in orderly manner and heard our concerns. We came in peace and left in peace, and out of that experience I was elected to Congress and worked ardently to improve the federal policy under which our farm sector operates.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
The farm demonstrations of the late ’70s were not staged with violent intent. Those who came to the Capitol with violent and lawless intent had no right to do so either. I am certain that those who carried out the violence and as well those who condoned their actions have no concept of the damage they have done.
I wish that the perpetrators of the violence could have been with me shortly before the breakup of the Soviet Union when I was asked to address a group of young college students on the House floor when Congress was not in session. They came to Washington from the Soviet Republic of Georgia and were seated quietly along the center aisle in Member’s chairs when I arrived.
They were proficient in English and had selected a young female student who was perhaps 20 years old as their spokesperson. During my remarks about the House Chamber and the Congress I pointed out that they were seated on either side of the aisle that the president walked down for the traditional State of the Union address marking the beginning of a new year of the Congressional agenda.
When I had finished my remarks, their spokesperson immediately raised her hand. She asked if she could walk down the aisle that the president walked. I smiled and said, of course.
I will never forget watching that young lady, with a smiling face like all of her colleagues, walking down the aisle to the well of the House and back to her seat. Her fellow students burst into applause. After a brief pause for a good-natured bow she turned to me.
“In my country I would never be allowed to walk down that aisle or to come into this room.” Her touching remark left me speechless.
I wonder what that young student said when she saw that awful event of Jan. 6?
I have no doubt that Vladimir Putin, the former KGB agent and now dictator of Russia will be showing those images to a new generation of Russians saying, “You see, democracy does not work. It is filled with violence and hate. The kind of violence that will never be allowed here in the Kremlin.”
The sanctity and security of the U.S. Capitol, recognized as the repository of hope for freedom-loving people around the world, was desecrated before their very eyes. In turn, the enemies of freedom and the adversaries of our nation have been given a propaganda weapon of awesome destructive power.
The events of Jan. 6 will lead to the erection of barriers and security measures far more restrictive to the Capital and surrounding grounds than those imposed after 9/11. It will be far more difficult, if even possible, for people from around the world to come there and stand in awe before the inspiring edifice of the dome with its towering statue of freedom.
What was attacked on Jan. 6 was our very democracy.
It is incumbent on every American citizen, whether Democrat or Republican, Biden supporter or Trump supporter, to understand that we share our democracy, and that it has been challenged and besmirched before the eyes of the world.
We must let those who come with anger and dissent to the very place where that right is ensured understand that they will have that right only so long as if is fostered through peaceful deliberations and the democratic process. Violence and anarchy directed at the heart of our democratic institutions will destroy not only our hope of freedom for all Americans for all time to come, it will destroy the hope of freedom for all freedom-loving nations around the world.
Lindsay Thomas served in the U.S. Congress, 1983-1993. He has also served as president and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He operates a farm near Screven, Georgia.
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