Guest Opinion: January 6 committee is doing sacred work so, no, we won't move on

Sometime next month, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on our Capitol will hold public hearings. Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick accurately described 1/6 as “nothing short of a coup attempt” and accused former President Trump of lighting the “flame of incitement.” Some tell me that people have moved on, that they are more worried today about the cost of gasoline and scarcity of baby formula than an effort to prevent the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in our nation’s history.

Don’t get me wrong. I, too, worry about gas prices and access to baby formula, especially the latter as a newly minted grandfather. But count me among those who won’t ever move on from 1/6 until those responsible for that awful day are held accountable — from domestic terrorists wearing helmets and body armor who beat policemen senseless and threatened to murder lawmakers, to politicians in suits who may have encouraged and facilitated the attack.

We owe it to the courageous law enforcement officers who lost their lives or were grievously injured in the attack, as well as those who died by suicide since 1/6 due to the enormous stress of that day, not to move on.

We owe it to members of Congress, their staffs, and other Capitol personnel who cowered in closets, basements, and other safe locations while the rampage went on hour after hour, not to move on.

We owe it to the drafters of the Constitution who designed a representative government to be determined by “We the People,” not to move on.

We owe it to the men and women in uniform who over the years fought to defend our freedom — like my late father who flew 50 bomb missions in a B-17 in 1944 against Nazi targets in Europe — not to move on.

We owe it to those Republicans understandably embarrassed by a resolution of the Republican National Committee declaring the events of 1/6 to be “legitimate political discourse,” not to move on.

I wanted to believe Congressman Fitzpatrick would not want us to move on, that he would want to get to the bottom of the 1/6 coup attempt. Yet, sadly, he voted against establishment of the House Select Committee after Mitch McConnell blocked a more bipartisan committee in the Senate. Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were the only Republicans with the fortitude to stand up for our democracy and our Constitution. They now serve admirably on the committee.

Cheney, who recently accepted the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, said, “This sacred obligation to defend the peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every American president except one. The question for every one of us is in this time of testing, will we do our duty, will we defend our Constitution, will we stand for truth, will we put duty to our oath above partisan politics?”

I’m betting that there are plenty of Democrats, Independents and, yes, also many patriotic Republicans here in Bucks County who are not ready to just move on.

Martin J. Raffel lives in Langhorne.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: January 6 committee is doing sacred work so, no, we won't move on