What now?

 "What'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?

What'll you do now, my darling young one ...?"

-- Bob Dylan (via Edie Brickell)

So, what now? Where do we go from here?

Wednesday, January 6, 2021 was a dark and heavy day for our nation and our community. The unimaginable manifested itself in our nation's capital, our Capitol, the People's House. And now there is uncertainty and a deep hollow feeling, as we ask ourselves: "Is this the end of something, or the beginning of something else." There is much subtext in those words from Van Jones on CNN. The ambiguous nature of what is ending -- the madness or the community and institutions it seeks to disrupt -- cannot be fully known at this point. Is the beginning a return to decency and a rejection of the bitter nastiness in politics, or is it the beginning an even darker and more sinister approach to partisan divides? 

I remain concerned and uncertain, especially after the 100+ votes in the House and the revisionist justifications happening among some media and partisans. 

The buffoons in DC yesterday, even the armed ones and the ones who entered the Capitol building or just marched, are not what most disturbs and unsettles me. They are mostly just a bunch of hooligans who have lost or never had a sense of decency. And I don't mean to dismiss or de-emphasize the very real danger that erupted yesterday and was thankfully contained. And I don't mean to gloss over or dismiss the very real fear that many of our representatives and civil servants felt. But the harm those people did, and the terror they enacted is not our worst danger. The next Timothy McVeigh is. The foreign powers who saw the weakness and vulnerability of our Capitol are. Somewhere out there are people far more sinister, far more dangerous, and far more intent on doing harm. And the President cultivated that. And the Republican leadership has done far too little to counter it.

And I am concerned. And I am worried.

But I am also still hopeful. And I still have faith. And I still believe in our goodness.