Tag: January 6

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Pot-Smoking Millington January 6th Insurrectionist Gets Five Years in Prison

Credit: U.S. Department of Justice

A Millington man forced his way into the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021, assaulted police, stole a book, tried to steal an oil painting, smoked a joint in the Rotunda, sobbed during his trial, begged a judge for mercy, and got five years in prison last week. 

Ronald Sandlin, 35, of Millington was sentenced in Washington D.C. to 63 months in prison and three years of supervised release last week on a number of charges, all related to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th. Those charges include conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers.

Sandlin, a business owner, had two co-conspirators, Nathaniel DeGrave and Josiah Colt. Together, they planned to interfere with the peaceful transition of presidential power, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), beginning in December 2020. 

Sandlin sought GoFundMe donations to organize a caravan to Washington.

On December 31st, 2020, Sandlin posted to Facebook that he was organizing a caravan to travel to Washington and sought donations with a GoFundMe page. The same day, the three conspirators began a private chat on Facebook to plan for a January 6th assault on the Capitol. In the chat, they discussed “shipping guns” to Sandlin’s residence in Tennessee, where they planned to meet prior to their trip. 

On January 4th, 2021, before heading to Washington, Sandlin posted to Facebook a picture of Colt lying on a bed holding a firearm, with the caption, “My fellow patriot sleeping ready for the boogaloo Jan 6.” The DOJ Sandlin understood at the time that the term “boogaloo” referred to civil war. 

“My fellow patriot sleeping ready for the boogaloo Jan 6.”

Ronald Sandlin

On January 6th, after watching live television coverage of the “Stop the Steal” rally near the Ellipse, at a nearby restaurant, Sandlin live-streamed a video in which he called on “other patriots” to “take the Capitol.” In the video, Sandlin stated four times that “freedom is paid for with blood.” 

Sandlin, DeGrave, and Colt then traveled together to the Capitol wearing protective gear, including gas/face masks, helmets, and shin guards. Sandlin was armed with a knife, while DeGrave carried bear spray. 

On the Capitol grounds, the men scaled dismantled bike barricades and got past law enforcement officers, pushing through the crowd to get closer to the Capitol building. Sandlin repeatedly yelled things such as “we’re not here to spectate anymore,” “the time to talk is over,” and “if you’re not breaching the building, move out of the way.”

“If you’re not breaching the building, move out of the way.”

Ronald Sandlin

The three men entered the Capitol through the Upper West Terrace door, at about 2:35 p.m. Inside, Sandlin and DeGrave pushed against officers guarding an exterior door to the Capitol Rotunda, slowly forcing the door open and letting a mob stream inside. Sandlin shouted at the officers, “you’re going to die, get out of the way,” before grabbing an officer’s helmet.

The three men then went together up a set of stairs and to a hallway outside the Senate chamber. Sandlin incited others in the mob to prevent U.S. Capitol Police officers from locking the doors to the Senate Gallery, shouting “grab the door.” He began shoving officers in an attempt to keep the doors open. As he did this, his hand made contact with the side of an officer’s head. The trio and dozens of other rioters then gained access to the Senate Gallery, where Sandlin recorded a selfie-style video with his phone, exclaiming: “We took it. We did it.”

Sandlin smoked a cannabis joint in the Rotunda of the Capitol.

U.S. Department of Justice

After leaving the Senate Gallery, Sandlin smoked a cannabis joint in the Rotunda of the Capitol. He also stole a book from a desk in a Senate-side office, which he later described to Colt as a “souvenir.” He also picked up an oil painting from the Capitol and slung it over his shoulder before others in the mob took it off his shoulder. He exited the Capitol at about 3:16 p.m.

Shortly after the riot, Sandlin deleted photographs and messages regarding the events of January 6th from his group chats with Colt, DeGrave, and others.

Sandlin wrote he was “ashamed” and “embarrassed,” calling the January 6th insurrection “a national tragedy.”

8 News Now, Las Vegas

Sandlin and his co-conspirators were arrested in Las Vegas a few weeks after January 6th. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sandlin sobbed during his hearing and begged, “Your honor, have mercy on me. Please.”

“I want to start off by apologizing to the officers I assaulted January 6,” Sandlin said in a statement provided to the judge, according to Las Vegas’ 8 News Now. “I have to live with my abhorrent actions for the rest of my life and I pray that my sentencing gives you and your families peace and resolution.”

Sandlin wrote he was “ashamed” and “embarrassed,” calling the January 6th insurrection “a national tragedy.”

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January 6er Gets Plea Deal: Prison Time, $700 for a Door He Busted, and More

(Credit: Department of Justice)

A 21-year-old January 6th insurrectionist took a federal plea deal, got eight charges reduced to one, agreed to pay $700 for a Republican conference room door he helped to break and other fees, and faces years in federal prison.  

Nicholas James Brockhoff, 21, of Covington, Kentucky, was arrested in Counce, Tennessee (near Pickwick Lake in West Tennessee), in May 2021. In January 2021, he joined thousands of other rioters to breach the U.S. Capitol in hopes of stopping Congress from certifying results in the 2020 presidential election. 

Brockhoff pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to one charge of assaulting law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon, a fire extinguisher. Before he signed a plea deal last week, he faced eight charges, including another charge of using a deadly weapon (the fire extinguisher), obstructing law enforcement, entering restricted grounds, disrupting government business, engaging in violence on the Capitol grounds, demonstrating, and more. 

(Credit: Department of Justice)

A Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation found that Brockhoff travelled over 500 miles and eight hours by car from Kentucky to Washington, D.C., to join the “mob that had gathered on the west side of the U.S. Capitol.” At around 2:32 p.m., he threw an object at law enforcement officials. 

Later, he “assaulted” law enforcement officials “when he discharged the contents of fire extinguishers, which are deadly or dangerous weapons when used as Brockhoff did.” He sprayed police at least two times from two locations, according to the DOJ. In doing so, “he caused law enforcement to disperse, which interfered with their ability to conduct crowd control and prevented them from seeing, avoiding, or deflecting projectiles and weapons intended to injure them.”

(Credit: Department of Justice)

On his way inside the building, Brockhoff found a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) helmet on the ground. He put it on his head, reads the report, “and wore it as a trophy.” Through a broken window, Brockhoff entered the Senate Conference room. 

(Credit: Department of Justice)

Once inside, Brockhoff and others left the room and went into hallway. They found a door labeled “ST6M,” a Republican conference room. He and others kicked the door, and at one point Brockhoff instructed another to kick the door “farther to the right.” They kicked a hole in the door, and Brockhoff reached his hand inside and opened the door from the inside. Once inside, he tore open a box, and “riffled through the papers in the office.” 

Outside the building, Brockhoff, still wearing the police helmet, is confronted by MPD officers who ask him, “You’re going to come out with an MPD helmet?” To which, Brockhoff replies, “I found it on the ground.” 

Later, officers asked Brockhoff his name, and he gives his first and last name. They ask if he’s injured, to which he replies, a “little bit.” They ask if he injured himself climbing through a window, to which Brockhoff replies, “glass, glass, glass, yeah.” The injuries on his hands can be seen in police footage from body-worn cameras. 

(Credit: Department of Justice)

Much of the government’s identifying evidence on Brockhoff came from Capitol surveillance footage and police cameras. In nearly all of them, he is identified by his blue jacket with a green hood and his black backpack with a yellow tag. 

(Credit: Department of Justice)

As part of his plea deal, Brockhoff will face only one count of use of a deadly weapon. For this, the DOJ will ask the court for a reduced sentence. He could face nearly four to five years in prison. However, he faces a statuary maximum of 20 years. But the court will decide how much prison time he will get.

His plea deal also includes paying $700 for the damage he helped to inflict on the Republican conference room door. He’ll also pay $2,000 in restitution to the Architect of the Capitol to aid in the more than $2.7 million worth of damage caused to the building that day. He will also pay an unknown sum in restitution to the victims of violence on January 6th. 

Brockhoff is slated to be sentenced in March. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee, the FBI’s Memphis Field Office, and Hardin County Sheriff’s Department helped investigate the case.         

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“Where’s Those Pieces of Shit At?”: Olive Branch Man Sentenced on January 6th Charges

(Credit:Alejandro Barba on Unsplash)

An Olive Branch man was sentenced to two years in prison for his involvement in the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. 

Matthew Bledsoe, 38, of Olive Branch, was found guilty by a jury in Washington D.C. on Friday. His sentence includes the felony offense of obstruction of an official proceeding, four misdemeanor offenses, including entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a Capitol building, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

“According to the government’s evidence, in the days immediately following the Nov. 3rd, 2020, election, Bledsoe began posting to social media about the presidential election,” reads a statement from the U.S. District Attorney’s office. “On January 6th, 2021, he attended a rally near the Ellipse. Bledsoe then headed to the Capitol, and illegally entered the Capitol grounds shortly after 2:13 p.m. 

“He then moved to the Capitol building itself. He scaled a wall at the Upper Northwest Terrace and entered through a fire door at the Senate Wing. Among other things, he yelled, ’In the Capitol. This is our house. We pay for this shit. Where’s those pieces of shit at?’ 

‘In the Capitol. This is our house. We pay for this shit. Where’s those pieces of shit at?’ 

Matthew Bledsoe, according to government evidence

“He climbed a statue and was outside the corridor to the House Chamber and hallways near the Speaker’s Lobby. He left the building about 2:47 p.m., after approximately 22 minutes inside. Within two hours, however, Bledsoe returned, lingering outside the East Rotunda Doors as law enforcement officers worked to secure the building and grounds.

“In the days following the riot, Bledsoe continued to message with friends and family and post on social media regarding what happened on January 6th. For example, on January 7th, he posted on Facebook photos of members of Congress taking cover and security officers defending the members during the riot. One caption read, “How corrupt politicians should feel.”

Bledsoe, formerly of Cordova, was arrested on January 13th, 2021. Following his prison term, he will be placed on three years of supervised release. He also must pay $2,000 in restitution and a fine of $2,000.

In the 21 months since January 6th, 2021, more than 880 have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 270 people charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.

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Anti-Mosque Activist Reappointed to Tennessee Textbook Panel

Tennessee General Assembly

An activist who fought the establishment of a mosque in Tennessee more than a decade ago has been reappointed to the state commission that reviews and recommends books and instructional materials for local school systems to adopt.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton on Tuesday reappointed Laurie Cardoza-Moore to the Tennessee Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission for a three-year term that ends on June 30, 2025.

The extension of her tenure on the panel, following her controversial 2021 appointment to a one-year term, comes as a new law gives the commission authority to overrule local school board decisions and ban certain school library books statewide.

The commission is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss its new responsibilities, as well as its review of math textbooks recommended by publishers.

Meanwhile, two national reports released last weekend found that attempts to ban books from U.S. school libraries are on the rise again this year, after reaching a historic high last year.

While most of the panel’s 10 commissioners are licensed educators, Cardoza-Moore is not. With an associate degree from the KD Conservatory College of Film and Dramatic Arts in Dallas, she is one of three members chosen by the governor and two legislative speakers — all Republicans — to represent parents and citizens.

She homeschooled her five children, who are now grown, and in 2005 founded Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, a Franklin, Tenn.-based organization that claims to fight anti-Semitism.

After supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, she falsely blamed Antifa, referring to the loose affiliation of anti-fascist activists who have been labeled “terrorists” by Republicans. In 2020, her group was named an anti-Muslim “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In a brief telephone interview with Chalkbeat on Wednesday, Cardoza-Moore denied that she is anti-Muslim and said she has been objective in her review of textbooks and instructional materials in her role on the commission.

“Curriculum has to comply with state [academic] standards,” she said. “I look to make sure that it’s accurate and unbiased and reflects the values of Tennesseans.”

Her reappointment requires a confirmation vote by state lawmakers when they reconvene in January. In 2021, the Republican-controlled legislature voted to approve her appointment along party lines.

Cardoza-Moore’s first term ended June 30 while she was running for the GOP nomination to represent her Williamson County district in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Her narrow defeat in August by Jake McCalmon made her reappointment possible, said Doug Kufner, a spokesman for Sexton.

In his letter to Cardoza-Moore on Tuesday, Sexton said her new term begins immediately.

“I am confident that you will perform the duties of office with the high standard of professionalism, dedication, and integrity that the citizens of Tennessee deserve and expect of their public servants,” the speaker wrote.

Cardoza-Moore came to notoriety in 2010, when she opposed plans to build a mosque in Murfreesboro, south of Nashville.

During her confirmation hearings last year, Democratic Sen. Raumesh Akbari, of Memphis, asked about her comments at that time saying the mosque was being built to serve as a terrorist training camp.

Cardoza-Moore responded that there “absolutely” were terrorists in the group, but Akbari said law enforcement found no proof of her claims.

She testified that she has worked to fight classroom content that she described as historically inaccurate and biased. But she declined to answer questions about her beliefs around teaching students about the nation’s history of colonialism and slavery, since her work on the commission during her initial term would focus on materials for math, based on the state’s textbook adoption cycle.

The scope of the commission’s work will soon widen.

In 2023, the state is to begin reviewing science, fine arts, and wellness books. In 2024, the adoption cycle calls for a review of materials in social studies and world languages. And under a new state law, the panel can start having a say on school library content, based on appeals of local school board decisions over challenged books.

Several who opposed Cardoza-Moore’s appointment last year say their opinions haven’t changed.

Akbari, who chairs the Senate Democratic caucus, said Wednesday that Cardoza-Moore is “unqualified” to serve on a panel that has “an important role in our children’s education.”

Leaders of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization said her reappointment is a distraction from students’ education.

“Laurie Cardoza-Moore, a conspiracy theorist whose anti-Muslim rhetoric has endangered Tennessee families, has no business serving on any government commission, especially one that can influence what students read in their textbooks,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

You can learn more about the commission on the state’s website.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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At Large Opinion

Playing Chicken

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

I’m not as old as Donald Trump, but I’m no spring chicken, either. In fact, I’m probably an October chicken, prone to all the maladies of we elder fowl. One of these maladies — very common among my friends, I’m told — is waking up and worrying about stuff in the middle of the night. And I’m not talking about the big issues — politics, climate change, mortality. No. My life is easy. I work a little, I mess around in the yard, I exercise, I see my kids and grandkids when I can. Still, there are nights when I’ll lie there and fret about pointless stuff — when to clean the gutters or do we have enough guacamole for Friday night or should I get up to pee or can I make it till morning? (I can’t.) This phenomenon is so common that I can now say to myself at, say, 1 a.m., “Hey, this is just the midnight worries. It won’t mean anything in the morning. Go to sleep, idiot.” Sometimes, that works. Sometimes, I pop a melatonin.

So, I find myself wondering how former President Donald J. Trump is sleeping these days. A week ago Monday, he was deposed in New York by the U.S. attorney who is investigating potential tax crimes by the Trump Organization. His former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, has already testified extensively as to the company’s financial practices (aka, shenanigans), basically flipping on his old boss. In his own testimony, Trump pleaded the Fifth Amendment 440 times. That seems like not a good sign, and the kind of thing that might keep you up at night. But Trump’s week was just getting started.

Down in Florida, at Trump’s hotel/home, Mar-a-Lago, federal agents were going through boxes of material the former president had had delivered to his home from the White House upon his departure from office in January 2021. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had determined that among the materials that Trump took were classified documents. After some negotiations with NARA, Trump allowed some of the material to be returned, and his lawyers signed a release stating that there were no more classified documents in his possession. After examining the documents they’d received, NARA determined that was likely untrue and turned over the dispute to the Department of Justice in June. After an investigation, the DOJ became convinced that more classified information was being stored at Mar-a-Lago and conducted a raid, which uncovered lots more classified and top secret information. Oops.

Trump initially claimed the FBI was planting evidence, which indicates that he knew some of the material in his home was likely to get him in trouble. Then he bleated on Truth Social that in January 2021 he’d issued a blanket statement that “declassified” all the material taken from the White House. One assumes this would include what the FBI “planted,” though I’m not sure how that would work.

But, of course, this is not how government records and archival material are declassified. Paperwork must be filed. And further, a president does not have the right to declassify nuclear material or material relating to spies or undercover operatives. The Washington Post reported that nuclear-related documents were found in Florida. Newsweek.com reported that the material seized by the FBI also contained the CIA’s “NOC list,” which identifies the agency’s covert operatives around the world. No other media organization has reported this, but if Newsweek’s reporting is correct, we’ve moved into Julius and Ethel Rosenberg territory.

And we haven’t even gotten to the revelations that could emerge about Trump in the DOJ’s January 6th investigation, or the ongoing grand jury investigation into Trump’s possible election tampering in Georgia. Tennessee’s GOP toadies like Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, and David Kustoff rushed to categorize all of this Trump bad news as a Joe Biden-led assault on a potential presidential rival. But they are fools, panderers, and liars. The truth is, with any luck, we may finally be seeing the end of Donald Trump’s lifelong extra-legal dalliances, the dozens of crimes he’s skated around using high-priced lawyers and well-connected friends. These latest charges are much more serious than paying off a porn star or setting up a fake university or selling cheap steaks — or even laundering Russian mob money in real estate deals. Donald Trump is dancing on the edge of a very high cliff without a net. Sweet dreams, old man.

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At Large Opinion

Hold On, He’s Coming

You know, I’ve really tried to avoid writing about the most-recent former president. I was the Flyer editor during his tumultuous four years in office, and I had to write about him a lot, mainly because a week seldom went by without some sort of outrageous, over-the-top, unprecedented presidential antics. We were in a continuous reactive mode. He did what??? I had to write the column at the last possible minute, just to keep up.

Emotions were high from the very beginning of his term. (You may remember the Flyer’s infamous “WTF?” cover, which led many people to call our office to tell us they would never buy another Flyer. Yes, we’re free, but you know …)

Now, as Congress’ January 6th committee finally prepares to hold public hearings on the remarkable attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, I suspect emotions are about to kick into high gear again. The cast of characters in the plot includes generals, cabinet members, several congressmen, a few senators, sleazy lawyers, crazy lawyers, a pillow salesman, the wife of a Supreme Court justice, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, and the former president himself. 

The supporting cast includes Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and other white supremacists, plus several thousand assorted idiots from around the country who actually believed they could get away with pillaging the U.S. Capitol because the then-president told them to do it. (Not to mention that some of them actually thought they were going to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence.)

The schism in American politics was always there, but Trump drove a thick wedge into it, widening the divide like never before. Healing is going to take a while. With any luck, the former president will resist the temptation to run again and just keep operating the ceaseless “fund-raising” grift he’s been pushing since he left office. It’s not as much work and there’s more time for golf, so I’m somewhat hopeful.

As you may have gathered from various billboards around Memphis, Trump is bringing the circus to town, or rather, to Southaven, Mississippi, where the “American Freedom Tour” is slated to play the Landers Center on June 18th. Opening acts include Donald Trump Jr., his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, former paintball salesman and now sheriff Mark Lamb, plus other as yet unnamed “Top American Conservatives.” Tickets start at $45. Cultists and other suckers are advised to jump on these before they drop to, oh, I don’t know, free? The “crowds” Trump has been luring lately are not his best people. He’s got the usual six Black guys who sit behind him, a couple hundred Trump-heads who travel and never miss a gig, plus whatever assorted moronic locals show up to feed their id. It’s a party.

And there’s a Memphis angle now. After his speech at the NRA convention last week, Trump read the names of the 19 victims of the Uvalde shooting (mispronouncing many of them). Then, as one does following such a somber moment, he broke into a dance. That was bad enough, but making it worse was the fact that the music Trump was dad-dancing to was “Hold On, I’m Coming,” the iconic Stax tune penned by David Porter and Isaac Hayes.

Porter was not amused. He tweeted: “Someone shared with me Donald Trump used the song ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’ for a speaking appearance of his. Hell to the No! I did Not and would NOT approve of them using the song for any of his purposes! I also know Isaac’s estate wouldn’t approve as well!”

Such legal niceties will not stop Trump from using the song, and no doubt he’s doing so without paying royalties. But there may be a way to get a little payback. Memphis city council members Martavius Jones and JB Smiley have introduced a measure that would prevent the Memphis Police Department from escorting the Trump caravan from the Memphis airport to the Landers Center. They rightfully point out that Trump routinely stiffs local governments for any costs his visits incur, so why should Memphis put itself on the hook for those expenses? Trump’s a private citizen now. He’s got Secret Service protection. Let Mississippi take care of it.

I couldn’t agree more. When Trump lands in Memphis, let’s send him this message: Hold On, We’re Not Coming. 

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Dress Rehearsal for an Insurrection

TapTheForwardAssist | Wikipedia | Creative Commons

This week I’m going to cut to the chase and use my space here to highlight reporting I think everyone in the U.S. should read. I’m speaking of the recently published Rolling Stone article by Hunter Walker titled “Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in ‘Dozens’ of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff.”

I just reread the article, and it left me feeling utterly unsurprised but no less disgusted. There’s a lot of information to digest, but the crux of the matter is, as Walker writes, that “multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.”

To confirm this information, Walker talked with two sources who helped plan the pro-Trump rallies in Washington, D.C., which took place — and, some say, helped instigate — the violent storming of the Capitol later the same day. Because of the ongoing investigation into the Capitol attack, the sources were granted anonymity.

“I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically,” one of the sources is quoted as saying.

“[T]he pair both say the members who participated in these conversations or had top staffers join in included Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).”

Seven members of Congress were willing to put their coworkers in danger, to abandon the rules and guiding principles of democracy to achieve their ends. One, Arizona’s Rep. Gosar, allegedly offered blanket pardons for other, unrelated investigations as an incentive to get the two sources to help plan the rallies. If these claims are found to be true, these representatives must be expelled immediately, and they should face criminal charges.

Washington’s Rep. Pramila Jayapal tweeted, sharing the Rolling Stone article, and said, “On January 6th, I didn’t know if I would make it out alive.” To return to an oft-repeated word these days, causing your coworkers to fear for their lives hardly reeks of “bipartisanship.”

By this point, more than nine months after the event, there is ample evidence that the attack on the Capitol was not random. Reporting from The New York Times shows smartphone tracking data in time lapse showing people departing the rallies and heading straight to the Capitol. It seems clear that the levels of involvement varied — some elected officials were involved directly, while others seem to have delegated the work to their aides. Some people seem to have just spoken publicly about the “stolen” election, letting others fill in the blanks in their own minds. Whatever their connection to the events, they must face consequences. If this is swept under the rug, that amounts to a tacit approval.

What would happen if I used this column space to advocate for violence? Let’s say, for example, that I spent weeks writing about another Memphis media organization, alleging some sort of wrongdoing there? Then, once I had whipped my readers into a froth, I wrote that we couldn’t “let them get away with it,” that we wouldn’t “take this lying down”? If someone read between the lines and acted on the orders they thought I had given, albeit on the sly, wouldn’t I be expected to share some of the blame?

In Tennessee, it would seem that our options are somewhat limited. Most of our elected representatives either already believe that the events of January 6th must be investigated and that consequences should be meted out, or they claim nothing untoward happened at all. Just a normal protest. Nothing to see here. Call them anyway. Write to them anyway. The least we can do is be loud. Be louder than a group of internet nerds who don’t like the look of a movie trailer.

If we turn a blind eye now, we will regret it in the future when a more successful attack on democracy makes the events of January 6th look like a dress rehearsal.

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From My Seat Sports

Games and Goons

CREDIT: Jj Gouin/Dreamstime

Jj Gouin/Dreamstime

Sports have been hard to properly cheer for almost a year now. Our favorite teams and athletes are finding ways to compete, to create memories for us, despite a pandemic in which almost two million people worldwide have now died. We saw Major League Baseball squeeze a season into two months, baseballs clearing fences but into empty seats, players crossing the plate after a home run to cheers only from their teammates. The country is revved up these days — like every January — for the NFL playoffs, but we still see virtually empty stadiums as twenty-first century gladiators do what we love them to do: clash and crash.

But after January 6th? Good lord, does “clash and crash” now mean, yes, insurrection at our nation’s Capitol? How does sports fill its “distraction” role when we’re choosing to distract from what could be the dissolution of democracy? A Grizzlies game is always welcome this time of year, even if background to the evening chores, or muted for the sake of dinner conversation. But after January 6th? Are we really going to fret over two missing stars — and the Grizzlies really miss Ja and Jaren — while the legislative branch of our government is discussing the level of madness in the executive branch?

Most of last weekend, I utilized the last-channel button on my remote, bouncing between football and CNN’s updates on the status of President Donald J. Trump. Where was he? How would he choose to communicate with Twitter having silenced him? Would he lower the White House’s flag to half staff in honor of fallen Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick? Would he face removal via the Constitution’s 25th Amendment? Would he face a second impeachment? Who is Taylor Heinicke and what the hell is he doing competing with Tom Brady?

It’s a mad world, somewhat literally, here in the early stages of America’s 2021. The growing divide between those of us who adhere to science and facts and those (many) who choose to ignore them resulted in this country’s first outright coup attempt, one orchestrated and encouraged by the American president. Right there in public, though behind a pane of bulletproof glass. In a time when we are not allowed to gather in stadiums or arenas to cheer our favorite football and basketball teams, thousands gathered — not many in protective masks, you may have noticed — to destroy. The contact tracing from January 6th’s attack is going to reach a lot of morgues, I’m afraid. Insurrection in the time of coronavirus is a social cocktail mixed by Lucifer himself.

The Founding Fathers — Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, you know the names — are popular among so-called “patriots,” the type who will chant “Hang Mike Pence!” as they breach Capitol security. It’s almost quaint now to consider that sedition — conduct in opposition to government authority — was once a hanging offense. Had the American Revolution failed, it’s often noted by historians, Washington, Jefferson, and friends would likely have ended up dangling from a rope in front of British officers. Here, almost 250 years later, there will be no hanging of those responsible for January 6th. The question remains if there will be any consequences for the man most responsible for the seditious act.

I share all these thoughts because fear and anxiety (for Democracy, an experiment I’ve come to love) has reduced my rooting interest (for the teams I love) to its lowest level of my lifetime. Will the St. Louis Cardinals find a bat to improve their anemic offense in 2021? (If they don’t, no glass will be broken.) Might the Memphis Tigers find their way to some version of an NCAA tournament come March? (If they don’t, no gas will be sprayed.) No, I find myself merely rooting for peace — and significantly, a return to health — for my fellow man, both here in America and abroad. I also hope to see the day when, yes, the Cardinals’ run production is my most significant concern. At least for that day. It would be a new time for our planet, and quite welcome for all of us who occupy it.