I know about United States Capitol cops who are suffering. Smarting. Staggering. Almost a month after the Capitol uprising, they are paid to protect.
I know of Congressional aides who are suffering. Smarting. Staggering. This, after a violent crowd broke windows and broken doors, invading the Capitol where they work.
And these are the advisors who they were not at the Capitol on January 6.
These were officials homework during the pandemic. They are still upset after seeing an uprising of the highest order in their workplace.
In this photo from January 19, 2021, shock fences and barbed wire reinforce the security zone on the Capitol in Washington.
(AP)
And then there are the advisors who They were working at Capitol 1/6.
I know that these advisors are suffering. Smarting. Staggering.
They huddled under the tables for hours. In a coat closet. In bathrooms. Barricades, in rooms, just as they were taught in a post-Columbine world.
That, while the violent horde ransacked Congressional offices and positioned the Trump flagpoles as battering rams to invade the speaker’s lobby outside the Chamber chamber.
These are the scars that take time to heal. But they are scars. And the scars never go away.
The United States Capitol has horrible scars from that mortifying day. The injuries that remain are the horrible fences that encapsulate the Capitol, wrapped in barbed wire spirals. There are National Guard troops in uniform, carrying M5 rifles, guarding the US Capitol.
But the scars will remain on the heads and hearts long after the troops leave.
A disturbing silence surrounds you when you enter the Capitol’s secure perimeter today. You go through the fence, showing your pass a few times as you walk. You pass through stretches of grass that is the Russel Park of the Senate.
It is a park in name only.
The grass is there. Some frosts in winter. Banks. The Robert A. Taft Memorial and Carillon, in honor of the late Senate majority leader.
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But you can’t really get there. You cross Constitution Avenue. A car, like yours, already released to the “Green Zone”, can trundle by. There is no agitation.
Capitol Hill has always been a hive of activity.
Aides.Tourists.Lobbyists.Sightseers.Senators.Journalists.Gawkers.Joggers.Toddlers.PoliceOfficers.
Before the pandemic, a confusion of humanity. Just coming and going. Doing the nation’s business. Senators running to the Senate chamber to confirm the Deputy Secretary of the Interior. Or maybe a family that just arrived from Spokane, who never set foot in DC, pushing a three-year-old stroller, walking slowly across the grounds. Lobbyists getting out of taxis on Independence Avenue, in front of the Longworth House Office Building.
Now, a stillness.
The pandemic drowned out the Capitol’s daily turmoil. Legislators can only appear to vote. And on the side of the Chamber, some do not even do this, voting at home. There are advisers who haven’t darkened the door in almost a year. There may be a handful of tourists. Some runners. Dog walkers.
A funeral silence.
This silence is incongruous with the daily bustle of the Capitol. The Capitol and its surroundings are a shell of what they once were.
The white marble is still there. The majesty of the Dome remains. But that silence is frightening. Silence is a sign.
It says something bad happened here.
I’ve been back to Capitol almost every day since the turmoil. I stayed in a hotel near the Capitol near the opening – so I could easily get in and out of work. My wife took me the other days and left me. If the Capitol were blocked like that under any other circumstances, it would probably hire an Uber, Lyft or take the subway. But the pandemic presents a new level of difficulty just to get to work and park my car.
But I drove to Capitol one day last week. The officers inspected my badge and checked my chest on several occasions – twice after I entered the Green Zone. There was a lot of confusion about which way to go and where you should go. But after a while, I finally parked where I usually stop. There were no other cars there.
Capitol police officers speak at the Capitol Rotunda at the Capitol in Washington, Monday night, January 25, 2021.
(AP)
And then there was silence. Just the rustle of wrinkled leaves, clinging to trees, bombarded by tiny pellets of ice from the sky. No horns. No cars. Nobody.
Silence is one of those scars.
Some who work at the Capitol may never return, traumatized by 1/6.
This is also a scar.
And there is probably an emerging scar.
Capitol will not be the same.
Several investigations are underway on what went wrong at Capitol on 1/6. But one of the most important lines came from the acting US Capitol Chief of Police, Yogananda Pittman. Pittman informed House owners about the attack last week.
“In my experience, I do not believe that there was any preparation that would allow an open campus on which legal protesters could exercise their right to freedom of expression under the First Amendment and, at the same time, prevent the attack on (Capitol) that day,” said Pittman.
Yes. There will be discussions about staff, better communications and barricades. Many reporters realized what Pittman said about there being no “preparations” to avoid “the attack”.
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But there is another important line from Pittman. She used the phrase “open campus”.
This is what the United States Capitol complex usually was. An open campus. And it remains to be seen whether it will ever be again.
Before 1/6, people could roam the campus at will. Cross the Capitol Square. Before the pandemic, people could release security and spend the whole day wandering around the House and Senate office buildings, if they so wished. It didn’t matter if they had an appointment to see someone or not.
Capitol itself was closed, unless you were there to handle official business. You can also come to the Capitol to watch the action of the Chamber and the Senate in the galleries.
The difference between Capitol and, say, the State Department, is that the public has no right to just show up in an Executive Branch building and dance. Up to the perimeter. But access to the Capitol is essentially congressional. It’s a two-way exchange at the Capitol. People demand to interact with the people who represent them in Washington. And lawmakers insist that their constituents have access to them. It is one of the only ways in which American democracy works.
In addition, lawmakers want people to enjoy the place. The view from Capitol Hill, facing west towards the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, is one of the most dramatic in the world.
The opening made the Capitol unique. It also made him an incredibly easy target – almost two decades after 9/11.
So, how does Congress approach this? Barricades? Commitments? No one at the scene, unless they have removed the safety blocks? Controlled access? The closure of the avenues of the Constitution and Independence?
They reinforced the White House’s facilities in the early 1980s, after the nightclub attack in West Berlin. They closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. It also forced Congressional officials to close many streets that link the House and Senate office buildings.
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So, what scars will Capitol have now? Capitol will be different. More restricted. Less access. And the silence serves as a reminder of the January 6 mess.