Amid the sirens and shouting of Black Lives Matter protests — or the braying of insurrectionist mobs, to give a more recent example — tiny, quiet actions of bravery capture our attention.
During the night of the soon-to-be-former president’s strut to St Michael’s Episcopal Church, people fled from the tear-gas and rubber bullets he summoned up to chase them away. Cornered by police in a side street, who apparently hoped to arrest them for breaking the city’s curfew, some 70 people washed up on the doorstep of Rahul Dubey. His sense of justice outraged, Dubey summoned them into his house, giving them shelter and such treatment as his neighbors could help him offer. (Mostly jugs of milk and water, boxes of pizza and bread, passed over the back garden fences.) While the police bellowed at his front door for him to kick them out, Dubey turned to his guests and helped them figure out how to get safely away at daybreak.
I wrote about Rahul Dubey and his singular act of conscience — and bravery. There were hordes of police charging down the street, and pepper spray and tear gas clouding the air. I for one wouldn’t blame him one bit had he chosen to bolt his door and hide behind his sofa. I might well have done… But Dubey stepped forward and stepped up, and let them in. Perhaps a few protesters’ heads were unbloodied due to his one simple choice. Let them run up my front steps and come in.
Another day, another flight of stairs
The video and photographs emerging from last week’s attack by Trumpist supporters on America’s Capitol and Constitution grow steadily worse. The physical violence is sickening.
I’m particularly thinking of the scenes of the officer crushed against the glass doors of the building. It is horrible to watch… But don’t look away. See what Americans were willing to do to fellow Americans, even officers in uniform. See what they did when the president egged them on from his ceremonial dais, smack-dab in front of the White House.
It reminded me of the people crushed against the barriers at Hillsborough. Photos show them gasping for breath, smothered as the crowd pressed forward to escape the police behind them. The people in the Hillsborough crowd had no idea what was happening, the consequences of their relentless push toward the pitch.
But the people pressing forward to assault the Capitol knew exactly what they were doing. They intended break in. They did not care for one moment if anyone — especially someone trying to deny them entry — was hurt. And from all accounts, they intended to do as much harm as possible to any legislator they could catch. Democrats would undoubtedly be the best prize, but the sitting president sent them after the vice-president and wavering Republicans, too.
And so the insurrectionists ran, pell mell, across the lobby and towards the staircases that they knew would lead to the House and Senate chambers. If they were lucky, they could pounce on all the Representatives and Senators they wanted. A few brought zip-tie handcuffs to make sure they could hogtie the ones the president named as their enemies. Do you care to picture what they would have done had they succeeded?
Another brave man makes a choice on a staircase
We must all be thankful that these barbarian idiots didn’t succeed in achieving much more than making a comprehensive mess of the Capitol. (Not, apparently, thanks to the actions of a competent, fully prepared Capitol Police Force.) I’m thinking this time of the actions of Officer Eugene Goodman.
The Washington Post reported — supported by video filmed by HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic — that Goodman, acting alone, drew a pack of attackers up several flights of marble steps. He had nothing much to fend them off with except his baton, his radio and his wits. With great presence of mind, he lured them away from the corridor leading to the Senate chamber, where legislators were still scrambling to safety.
The Post goes on to report that Officer Goodman has been nominated for a Congressional Medal of Honor. I profoundly hope he gets it, by unanimous acclamation from every member of Congress.
But I have doubts about unanimity these days. I regret to say I think that Republicans, particularly in the House, may try to deny Mr Goodman that honor. Perhaps they’ll say he did nothing so brave, that they were not in such danger that his actions were urgent and necessary. Perhaps they’ll deny the evidence of their own eyes and ears. After all, that has been their modus operandi throughout their failed candidate’s efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s election.
Perhaps some of them will notice Officer Goodman is black. For some legislators, I fear that may color their feelings about his bravery, and the honor they could bestow.
I dare say they wouldn’t think Rahul Dubey, another brave person of color atop a staircase, did anything so worthy, either. But I do. And so should every American who still respects true and brave actions in defense of what is right.