Nearly five months after the January 6th breach of the Capitol, the scene remains vivid in our minds. On the day Vice President Pence was to oversee the certification of the November 2020 election, Capitol police rushed him and members of Congress out of the meeting room and into more secure locations as the crowd rushed in, chanting, “Hang Pence” and calling speaker Nancy Pelosi’s name. The House voted to create a bipartisan panel to investigate influencing factors and detailed circumstances of the attack and security’s response; however, in advance of voting, some senators have suggested the FBI’s investigation of individuals is sufficient; others insist that last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests be included in the investigation, but those protests named their objectives as they named those killed by police.
While opposition to the panel is largely partisan, the January 6th incursion named as targets any who would certify the electoral process. Modeled after the 9-11 commission, the bipartisan panel might begin a process that would heal the rift between government and the governed, Let us pray to Mary, Seat of Wisdom, to guide our leaders and our nation.
