Profiles in courage

On January 6, 2021 the California Congresswoman, Jackie Speier thought back to a traumatic November day, as she and her colleagues in the United States (U.S.) Capitol hid in a safe location, after the Rotunda was breached and tear gas filled the air.  

“More than 40 years ago, as I lay bleeding from five gunshot wounds on an airstrip in the Guyanese jungle not knowing if I would live or die, I swore that if I did survive I would dedicate my life to public service. I thought of that moment today when the U.S. Capitol was stormed by a mob of Trump rioters emboldened by the President fomenting a coup d’état,” she wrote in a social media post, that night.

Stressing, “This is a dark day for American democracy” she said, “The responsibility for this act of domestic terrorism lays firmly at the feet of the President and House and Senate Republicans who refused to impeach him, stoked his ego, and entertained his conspiracy theories about non-existent voter fraud.”