The First Week of 2021 After The Year That Was Like No Other.

2020 was a unique year.  It had 29 days in February, 300 days in March, and 5 years in April.  In 2020, the corona virus took over the world, and the world slowed down and came to a stop in some places.  In some sectors the world raced to meet the onslaught of Covid-19.  People died, more than 370,000 in the United States. The complete and abject failure of the President was on display for the world to see.  However, his failure to even try to control the spread of this disease cost people their lives, and for that he can’t be forgiven.  

The election in November restored some hope for the country because this corrupt, racist, lying administration was defeated.  However, this hope was tempered by the failure of the Democrats to take back the Senate from the Republican stronghold. Trump and his allies in Congress and the right-wing media started a campaign before the November election to say if he lost the election, then the election was rigged.  Once he lost the election, he unleashed a no-holds-barred effort to discredit the election results and to have them changed.  After 70 court challenges and recounts in different states (3 in Georgia alone) the results remained the same.  What could a narcissistic president do now to remain in power?

The two Senate seats from Georgia were still in play.  The State of Georgia has a law that requires candidate to receive 50.1% vote to win an election. This would insure that minority candidates couldn’t win in a 3 way race by splitting the vote and capturing the seat with less than 50% of the vote. Through the Herculean efforts of Stacy Abrams to register black voters and to get them to the polls, the State of Georgia voted for the Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden.  The question yet to be answered was:  could Stacey Abrams and others get the voters in Georgia to elect a Black Minister, Raphael Warnock, and a Jew, John Ossff to represent them in the US Senate.

While Trump was raising money to fund his effort to destroy the most secure election in the history of the United States, other money was pouring in to Georgia to influence the voters in this election.  The Democrats had two qualified and honest men running for these seats, the Republicans on the other hand had two people who used insider information to buy and sell stock to stuff their bank accounts. Both President-Elect Biden and loser Trump visited Georgia to campaign on behalf of their candidates.  Trump talked about how the election was stolen from him and to wait for January 6 when it would show he won.

Everyone was eager to ring in the New Year 2021.  Just like all the holidays in 2020, we rang in the New Year within our “family” pod.  A vaccine for the virus was approved in December 2020, and health care workers started to be vaccinated. Yes, a new strain of the virus was discovered in England, but a new President offered a new opportunity for handling the response to the virus in a fact based and efficient manner.  There was a glimmer of hope that we might get back to a sense of normalcy.   We knew the Georgia Senate election was on Tuesday, January 5, and the Congress would accept the electoral results of the state on Wednesday, January 6.  Welcome the year 2021.

The elections results from Georgia were not final until the Wednesday morning when Congress would accept the Presidential electoral results. Just as many of us were cheering the unbelievable feat of having a Southern “red” state elect two Democratic senators, the news broke that the Trump supporters, the white supremacy groups, the

proud boys and other right wing radicals stormed the  halls of the Capitol.  The Capitola had not been invaded since the War of 1812. No need to ask how this could happen now.  It happened because Trump called upon his followers to do it, this was his January 6 surprise.  It happened because the Republicans in Congress supported false claims about the election results; it happened because people are racist and believe right wing media lies.  I happened for these and so many other reasons.

So ends the first week of 2021, the year we were all waiting for.