No, I’m not voting for Harris because she’s a woman. If Trump was a woman, and Harris was a man, I’d still be voting for Harris.

No, I’m not freaked out by the flags that proclaim “WITCHES FOR KAMALA.” I am freaked out, though, by the Confederate and NAZI flags I’ve seen at Trump’s rallies.

And you can tap dance around it all you want, but the Trump-led insurrection of January 6th should have been a deal-breaker for every patriotic, stars-and-stripes-flying, law-abiding, Constitution-loving American.

Here’s what I witnessed live in front of my television on January 6: I witnessed Trump urging his followers to march on the capitol and “fight like hell” – I watched his followers climb over barricades, clash with capitol police, stab the police with flagpoles, crash through windows, and enter the capitol building with Confederate battle flags. I watched legislators being rushed out of the building by security because their lives were in danger. I saw a gallows for Pence set up. And we were wondering where the National Guard was – why hadn’t they been called in? Surely Trump could have called them directly – he was the commander-in-chief, he didn’t need to go through official channels.

I had a friend who actually went to the rally – she was a Trump supporter and still is, I think – but she left after Trump spoke and got on a bus and went home and I don’t think – even though she was there for the speech – she’s ever actually realized what happened after the speech. I feel like I had a better view than she did at that point. What my friend did was practice her First Amendment rights – she came to peacefully protest the lie she’d been led to believe – that this was a “stolen election.”

What happened after my friend left, though, was criminal. Our Constitution guarantees that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” For me, the key qualifier there in regards to January 6th is “peaceably.”

I was, frankly, traumatized by what I saw that day. How could this happen in the USA?!
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Link to footage from January 6th.