It's been one year since the insurrection. We hear from those affected.

Jaden Amos | Paste BN

Today marks one year since the Jan. 6 insurrection. We're sharing several stories about that day and it's aftermath. Leading the newsletter is Connie Schultz's experience being the wife of Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Why aren't we having nightmares about the next Jan. 6?

By Connie Schultz

I seldom had nightmares before Jan. 6. On that day, for about 40 minutes, I watched TV coverage of the mob and couldn’t find out if my husband was safe. That raw terror can stay with a person, I have learned.

The same nightmare still unspools, usually when Sherrod is in Washington. It starts as a dream of ordinary things. I’m in my home, in my campus office, at the grocery store – and suddenly an angry crowd is upon me. Every time, I am frantically searching for my husband and cannot find him. Sometimes, I’m awakened by our dogs, barking because I’ve yelled out in my sleep.

This is a small thing, compared with the trauma of those who were in the U.S. Capitol that day. But it is my thing, and I’ve told almost nobody. I’m embarrassed, so I have spent a year defying my steadfast advice to friends whenever they downplay what they’re going through. Suffering is not a competition, I’ve always told them. What hurts us, haunts us. We battle the ghosts we get.

Today's Editorial Cartoon

My Capitol officer husband's death deserves 'line of duty' designation

By Dr. Serena McClam Liebengood

It has been a year since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. My beloved husband, U.S. Capitol Police officer Howard “Howie” Liebengood, was on duty that day and continued to serve nearly around the clock on Jan. 7, Jan. 8 and Jan. 9 with minimal sleep between shifts. Sleep-deprived and exhausted, my husband took his life the night of Jan. 9. If it had not been for the events of Jan. 6 and the unremitting work schedule on the ensuing days, I believe my husband would still be here.

As anyone who has grieved a loved one knows, time is a strange thing. It’s hard to believe we are a year away from the events of that week; there are moments where it feels like this all happened yesterday. My grief is complicated by the fact that our family, including Howie’s siblings, finds ourselves at multiple intersecting points of American culture: the polarized political environment, the demands on first responders especially during a time of pandemic, and the national conversation around mental health and wellness.

One of the hardest discoveries has been encountering the culture and bureaucracy around line-of-duty designations. If a law enforcement officer commits suicide, even if it was in the context of a critical incident and its aftermath like Jan. 6, they are not eligible for a line-of-duty designation.

Jan 6 insurrection shows anyone can be swept up by hate groups

By Jonathan A. Greenblatt

At a time when disinformation is rampant and conspiracy theories are flooding the internet and social media like never before, we need to pay careful attention to modern pathways to radicalization.

The Anti-Defamation League’s research has shown that while some domestic extremists were involved in the attack on the nation’s Capitol, the majority of those who were involved in the violent insurrection had no connections to extremism whatsoever.

Of the 727 people arrested because of their actions on Jan. 6, about 155, or nearly a quarter, had ties to a wide range of right-wing extremist groups and ideologies, including the Proud Boys, anti-government Oath Keepers, QAnon and white supremacists.

Perhaps more alarming, however: 79% of those arrested had no explicit ties to extremist movements or groups. This suggests that a significant number of seemingly ordinary Americans decided that mob violence was an appropriate response to the election results.

Other columns on Jan. 6

This newsletter was compiled by Jaden Amos.

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