LETTER: It's time for Donald Trump to acknowledge Jan. 6, 2021, for what it was

On Jan. 6, 2021, I was on a holiday. I chose to stay that day to watch the Certification of the 2020 Presidential Election. I had never been to more than the ceremonial reading of the electoral results already certified by the states. To my knowledge, it was such a non-event that it had not been televised before, except perhaps on C-SPAN. It was the ceremonial non-event that was the crown jewel of the American legacy of a peaceful transfer of power. It could be safely assumed.

I stayed to watch though, because Donald Trump told us to. Trump said it was going to be a huge day, Trump said it was the last chance to “Stop the Steal.” I stayed to watch because Trump would not concede an election that his own hand-picked attorney general assured him he had lost, and by no small margin.

And then, on the morning of what should have been an uneventful day, I watched the loser encourage, incite and direct a crowd to violently stop the functioning of our democracy. I watched what any student of government or moderately educated citizen would immediately recognize as a coup attempt. And I thought, in any other nation, he’d be arrested. As the gallows swayed on the Capitol lawn, it was only forestalled by the vice president's unwillingness to go down in history as the man who put the final stake through the heart of American democracy.

I hope that in January 2022, we can see Jan. 6, 2021, for what it was. More importantly, we cannot let Jan. 6 go until Trump acknowledges what it was.

— Meredith Shaw, Panama City Beach

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This article originally appeared on The News Herald: LETTER: Time for Trump to acknowledge Jan. 6, 2021, for what it was