Beyond Political Games: The Plight of January 6th Participants
(Op-ed:)
Ping pong is a fantastic sport; its true beginnings come from England, often played by those in the higher class, and today it is widely enjoyed all around the world.
We have a different kind of game going on now, called political ping pong, and J6ers are stuck square in the middle of it.
One party loves us, the other thinking we belong in Guantanamo Bay, and some are centrist, but we are still being played with by the political elite and their like.
We are human beings and deserve respect, and we don’t have to look any further than how President Trump treats us.
He salutes us, supports us, raises awareness of our horrible conditions we have endured, and champions for our release, calling us political hostages.
And we are; we are hostages to a political ping pong match where lives are literally on the line, and we are tired of the game that is being played; it’s been 3 years.
This next election doesn’t just decide the fate of a single man; it decides the fate of everyone that was on the grass “trespassing” that day.
We have been locked in prison for misdemeanors, which hasn’t happened for a very, very long time, and we will continue to be.
Tell me, if you were on the left and you got in trouble for protesting your rights on the Capitol lawn and you were forced to endure what we did, would you be calling for the arrest of everyone with you?
No, you would protect them, especially if they were set up even before you got there.
My intention is to help you see why standing up for J6ers isn’t just about us; it’s about you too because you should have the right to have a redress of grievances and be able to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard without the government weaponizing a loophole in trespassing legislation to not only go after journalists, selectively like Steve Baker, but to go after your underage children and the moms and pops and grandparents all on the lawn that day.
The lawn, a stretch of grass on public property we pay for.
The arguments you might hear consist of blatant misunderstanding of the situation. When we got there, most of us saw no fencing and saw no barricades where they once stood guarded by Capitol police.
We were just walking to the building that was supposed to embody the ideals of freedom and democracy, and instead, both were attacked, along with our physical bodies and our whole livelihoods.
We have lost almost everything, except our hope for a better future, a future that consists of freedom and democracy for our children.
The Patriotic Poet
