Looking back on Jan. 6

Daily Pilot Jan. 14, 2022

Since the rioters stormed the steps of the U.S. Capitol a year ago, more than a dozen so-called patriots from Orange County have been arrested and charged.  I don’t know about you, but in some ways it feels to me like the Jan. 6 insurrection happened yesterday.  I guess that’s because, try as I might, I can’t “unsee” what I witnessed that fateful day.

When I first saw all those people clashing with police, I was shocked.  Next, as I watched the marauders running down the halls of Congress — the same halls I used to walk through when I worked on Capitol Hill 50 years ago — I felt sick to my stomach.

Today, I feel both angry and hopeful.  Angry because the rioters almost destroyed our democracy; and hopeful, because I believe the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 will uncover the truth about what really happened a year ago.

Pundits from both sides of the political aisle have written extensively about the impact Jan. 6 had, and continues to have, on America.  Call me old fashioned, but I was raised to believe in the rule of law and what it means to be a patriot.  In the case of the O.C. insurrectionists, they neither acted lawfully or patriotically.

Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach