Letter to the editor

The assault on our nations’ Capitol of January 6, 2021 has changed my life. Permit me to explain.

Through the 1960’s I lived in the Washington D.C. area and often visited the Capitol Building. This was a special place beyond compare.

On warm summer nights my family and I were seated with many on the east Capitol steps for free concerts by the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy bands. There were no barricades and few police officers. Patriotism flourished with the concert finale and a rousing “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

These are the same steps violently ravaged on January 6th.

To the west end of the Capitol there were magnificent 4th of July celebrations. Our Boy Scout troop toured statuary hall where America’s great leaders are honored. It was exciting to visit the historic galleries of the Senate and House of Representatives. These are the great halls ravaged by rioters.

Events on a cold November 24, 1963 have great meaning. I was 14, my brother 13.

Dad seated us on the curb of Pennsylvania Avenue to view the horse drawn, flag draped casket of President John F. Kennedy as it made its way to the Capitol rotunda to lie in state. The only sounds were muffled drums and the clacking hooves of a riderless horse.

Dad was a World War II South Pacific Navy veteran as was President Kennedy.

We joined a quarter million mourners in an hours long line to pass the Marine guarded casket in the rotunda. Stunned and deeply saddened, there was a kinship as Americans as we sought to satisfy our grief. For a boy of fourteen, the sights and surroundings beneath the dome were eerily haunting.

My work life returned me to Washington. As a commuter by train, I exited Union Station to a view of the north of the Capitol. I treasured this as a spectacular way to begin and end the work day.

Each time I view the extensive photography of January 6th I am bitter, sorrowful and sickened. This is a study in evil.

The pictures do not lie. Liars lie. Propagandists distort. Con men conspire and confuse. The pictures are only twisted, distorted or explained away by those blinded by the purveyors of lies.

I now choose more carefully my contacts. Long active in community activities my interest has waned. My Christian faith is shaken by those who accommodate evil when it serves their purpose. I fear for my country and the Capitol I love.

David Helman

Salem