There have been a lot of reactions and responses to the events of Jan. 6, where the Capitol building was stormed in an attempted coup. The one response I am sick of hearing is “This is not who we are.” “This is not America.” “This doesn’t happen here.”

I think this reaction bugs me so much because I’m a recovering alcoholic. I know very well that in order to fix a problem, you first have to admit that you have one. If you can’t control how much you drink, you have a drinking problem. If you can’t control white supremacists in your Capitol, you have a white supremacy problem.

The state of Maine was born out of a failed compromise against fascism. Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820 as part of the Missouri Compromise – to keep the balance of the power in the United States of America divided evenly between slave states and free states, Maine was admitted to the Union as a free state, while Missouri came on board as a slave state. What this did, of course, was simply kick the can of conflict down the road for 40 years, and condemn millions of human beings to the torture of chattel slavery for another two generations.

White supremacy is not to be reasoned with or appeased. It is an evil institution but a profitable one. When the South decided to secede from the Union in order to continue profiting from slave labor, Maine began to redeem itself from the circumstances surrounding its admission into statehood. We sent 70,000 men and boys to fight for the Union Army. That was over 10 percent of the population. Roughly 9,400 of them never came home. Maine’s most well-known war hero, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (the original J-Law), was wounded so badly in the Battle of Petersburg that he had to wear a catheter for the rest of his life. Do you know what 19th-century catheter technology was like?

I am descended from a man named Cornelius McEachron, who fought for America in the Revolutionary War. My family has sacrificed much through the generations to serve this country. My mother’s father died when she was 6 months old in a military aircraft crash. He flew B-52 bombers, meant to deter the Soviet threat. Lt. Melvin Spencer swore an oath to give his life to defend America from all enemies, foreign and domestic. And he did. He was 28 at the time of his death. When I saw the mob rushing into the Capitol, trying to overturn a democratic election, all I could think of was “my grandfather did not die for this bull crap.”

Susan Collins, “Our Senator,” bears a heaping plateful of responsibility for what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Can you imagine how many people would still be alive today if Donald Trump had been removed when he was impeached one year ago? Not only the folks who died during the rioting – hundreds of thousands of Americans would still be alive if Trump had not been left in the White House to mismanage the coronavirus pandemic. My parents taught me that actions speak louder than words. Even allowing for the fact that when it comes to politics, words and actions are often the same thing, Susan Collins has done little to rein in the dangerous behavior of an unfit president.

I don’t know what her motivations are, so I can’t speak to that. Maybe she just didn’t want to make any trouble so Bath Iron Works can get a few more ship contracts. Maybe she’s a true believer in Trumpism at heart. Maybe she just doesn’t want to risk losing the votes of the base of the Republican Party, which wholeheartedly belongs to Donald Trump. Personally, I wouldn’t want the votes of anyone who stormed into my workplace waving a Confederate flag or wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt, but what do I know? I’m not a politician.

By the way, I was at the original Women’s March on Washington, in January 2017. You will notice that none of us stormed the Capitol, viciously beat and stomped a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer or hit a U.S. Capitol Police officer – who wound up dying from his injuries – in the head with a fire extinguisher. We didn’t write “murder the media” on a door. And excuse me if I take that one a little personally, being a member of the media and all.

Unfortunately, American culture means that being white and wealthy frees a person from ever facing negative consequences.

Fortunately, I’m 28. If I stay sober and eat my vegetables, I stand a very good chance of outliving Susan Collins. And if I do, I will be able to use my meager talents to make sure her legacy is remembered the way she deserves – as a failure.

Victoria Hugo-Vidal is a Maine millennial. She can be contacted at:
mainemillennial@gmail.com
Twitter: mainemillennial

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