To the Editor:

Ever since the Jan. 6 armed insurrectionist attack on the US capitol (and on our democratic process itself), I’ve been thinking of my high school civics teacher, Mr. Adair. 

I didn’t adequately appreciate Mr. Adair’s efforts at the time, but those freshman-level lessons have stayed with me. I learned about the formulation of our laws and civic structure, and Mr. Adair explained the unique American experiment of our representative government, its balance of powers as laid out in the Constitution, and its dependence on citizens’ active engagement and involvement. 

He also taught about the power of civil, peaceful protests.

While the Capitol attack took place on a single day, it was the culmination of months of lies and disinformation, and the single most culpable person in perpetuating #TheBigLie that Biden’s victory was a “fraud,” ultimately leading to the siege itself, was Donald J. Trump.

While many participants in the Capitol Coup are being arrested and tried, and deserve to be, it is Trump himself who must be held accountable above all.  The Senate has a solemn duty to protect against future such attacks: they must vote to #ConvictAndDisqualify, preventing Trump from ever holding public office again.

Perhaps your readers had their own Mr. Adair. I urge all who read this, regardless of party affiliation, to contact your senators and tell them: #DoYourDuty. Make it clear that attacks on our democracy will not be tolerated, nor will the incitement and fomenting of such attacks.

And please: Tell your friends in other parts of the country to reach out to their senators as well, Republicans and Democrats alike.  We must unite to uphold the ideals that I first learned in freshman civics class in order to move forward together toward a more perfect union.

Matthew Murphy
Wayne Street