Assault on the Capitol of the World
“Even the statues cried.” Photo from Pixabay.
Commentary by Gabriel McCrea
JAN. 11, 2021: I am nine years old and I have seen a lot happen in my life. When I was born, the United States had a black President, President Obama. As a young child that meant nothing to me. Till the age of five the only important people in the world lived in my house. So I didn’t understand how, even if a man is the smartest person in the world, the color of skin might keep him from being President here in the United States. Then, when I was six a man named Trump became president. It was like a mean and nasty came into the world wearing a red hat. It feels likeTrump wanted to punish the U.S. for letting a black man in the White House.
Yesterday that same mean and nasty took over the capitol building of the capital city of all of the United States of America.
Back in November 2020, I went with my mother to Sherwood Recreation Center to vote for the President of the United States. She came out wearing a little flag sticker on her chest and a big smile on her face, because here in the U.S. that is how we make things change. It turns out a lot (I mean, really a lot) of black people voted. It might mean no more boys that look like my fourteen year old brother will be showing up dead on the news. The people who stormed the capitol building yesterday don’t care about me, my brother or anyone that looks like me. And they wanted the world to know it.
The United States Capitol is where our laws are made, and yesterday the officials were as scared as we blacks are every day. The people that represent all of us were made to get on the ground. They had bags on their heads and couldn’t breathe. That is what we black people go through whenever we come in contact with the police.
I don’t understand so much of what is happening.
I don’t understand why proud people would try to destroy an important U.S. building.
I don’t understand why I have to remind other people that my life matters.
I don’t understand why we fight for freedom in other countries but fight against it here in our own.
I don’t understand why Trump would tell one group of the U.S. to hate another group in the U.S.
Gabriel McCrea is a fourth grade scholar at Friendship Public Charter School Online.