By Reverend Dr. Otis Moss, Jr.
Now and then in our lives and in history, the three above realities take place at the same time. We witnessed each of the above events in our own time and space on January 5-6, 2021.
One hundred years from now, I predict that preachers, teachers, writers, artists, historians, theologians, political scientists, legal scholars, journalists and many more will discuss and learn from the American events of January 5-6, 2021. This will take place locally and globally.
First, the election of Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff lifted the assumed (by some) impossible to an actual event in history. An African American who grew up in the housing projects of Savannah, Georgia, pastor of the world’s most prophetic pulpit is now a United States Senator from Atlanta, Georgia. This is great.
Secondly, Warnock has a history that is inseparable from the horrors of the Atlantic Slave Trade – that peculiar institution whose residue continues to trouble our nation. Ossoff has a history that includes the horrors of the Holocaust. These two brothers united in a common cause for the Common Good and won against the odds.
Strong voices whispered to each of them saying: “Do not run, you may not win.” A stronger voice said: “If you do not run, you cannot win!” They determined to run and their races, their endeavors became national, global, great and successful. The democratic process was challenging…the outcome is great.
In opposition to that which is great, the 45th President of the U.S.A. released all the horrors at his command. He (in my opinion) incited a mob. He led an insurrection. He declared war on democracy, joined by 100-plus Congresspersons and several Senators. The insurrectionists, the organized mob declared war on the nation’s Capital. They created a Trump version of Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) directed toward the Nation’s Capitol. Glass windows were crashed… Offices were ransacked… Documents were strewn…Congresspersons, Senators, including the Vice President had to flee for their lives. It was horrible. The President was the ringmaster. Scores of Republican Congresspersons and a number of Senators were in the supporting case. Each trying to frustrate, cancel or destroy the democratic and constitutional election of 2020. Each trying to satisfy the sick motives of a defeated President. Horror crashed and desecrated the People’s House – The Nation’s Capitol. For a few hours, the Nation’s Capitol became a house of angry mobsters. A house of criminals… A chamber of thugs. The KKK and Neo-Nazis came to the Nation’s Capitol at the invitation of a defeated President.
Some have compared the mob attack January 6, 2021 to the British attack in 1814 during the War of 1812-1815… a powerful historic reference. However, the above attack in 1814 was by a foreign nation with whom America was at war.
January 6, 2021, the Nation’s Capitol was violently invaded by a domestic mob. A vicious gang of domestic terrorists, prepared to murder, injure, capture, kidnap and totally disrupt, capture and overthrow the government of the United States of America. All aided and abetted by the President of the U.S.A.
I would call to mind the vicious mobs at Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957 against nine innocent high school students seeking an education according to the edict of the U.S. Federal Court.
In the above case, President Eisenhower, with the service of the U.S. Attorney General sent in Federal troops and federalized the Arkansas National Guard, and protected the rights of U. S. citizens.
In 1961 a mob gathered at the University of Georgia against two African American students, Charlayne Hunter-Gault and the late Hamilton Holmes. The President and Attorney General upheld the Constitution of the United States and the Civil Rights of these two students. President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy did likewise when James Meredith entered the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). They did the same thing when James Hood and Vivian Malone entered the University of Alabama in 1963.
In 2021, the U. S. President has united with a vicious and deadly mob to overturn a Presidential election! This is all on camera in real time, before our very eyes, and five people have been killed. I predict that most of the mobsters and insurrectionists will never be brought to justice. I hope that I am wrong. This includes the President, some Senators and Congresspersons who are in unison with the mobsters and insurrectionists who declared war on democracy in words and deeds. This is horrible!
However, something wonderful is being born in the midst of the horrible. A new President and Vice President will soon take their oaths of office. They will write a new chapter in U. S. and world history. This is wonderful.
Two new Senators from Georgia have already written a new chapter in American history. Stacy Abrams and Georgia voters who believe in democracy have given new hope to our nation’s future. This is wonderful.
We can sing with new meaning:
“America, America,
God shed God’s grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood and sisterhood and childhood love,
From earth to sky and sea to unpolluted sea.”
– Paraphrased by Otis Moss, Jr.
Last updated on January 14, 2021