The Capitol Police Gave Their All

current events, gratitude, Inspirational People, poetry 1 Minute
Image from Georgia Recorder(*)

In Honor of Caroline Edwards, Witness at the January 6th Committee’s First Public Hearing, and Her Colleagues

T he lovely, nails-tough cop described the
H ell raining down upon them.
E nduring torment, taunts, and trauma, they

C ontributed their very lives to save
A building, institution, lawmakers—all
P rey to a mob of fury-blinded
I nsurrectionists whose Chief insisted
T hat it was they who were in the right.
O nly now do we fully see the brilliant
L ight their heroism shone as trained thugs

P ressed against them,
O verwhelmed them.
L isten to her searing words:
“I t was carnage, it was
C haos…I wasn’t trained for warfare.”
E xcruciatingly, she detailed the horrors,

G raphically told of slipping in her fellows’ blood
A nd wiping clean their spray-pierced eyes til
V eils of spray descended on her own,
E xhausting her devoted care.

T his officer’s courage propelled
H er thrice to the front line.
E ven after a head
I njury and lost consciousness, she
R evisited the strange American battlefield.

A wed by this heroism in a cause so
L ittle prepared for and hard to fathom, I
L ament their suffering and celebrate their devotion.

Annie

*Image and story in the GEORGIA RECORDER: https://georgiarecorder.com/2022/06/10/capitol-police-officer-caroline-edwards-reminds-us-what-heroism-looks-like/

Published by annieasksyou

I've been a nonfiction writer for many years, exploring diverse topics that pique my curiosity, as noted in my first blog posting (Greetings!). I'm seeking dialogue with others committed to joining me in this exploration, sharing my conviction that different views can be exchanged in a respectful, civil discourse where we can learn from one another and be agreeable, even when we disagree. These postings depend for their enrichment on your participation: your ideas, insights, knowledge, opinions, and personal stories.

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50 thoughts on “The Capitol Police Gave Their All”

    1. I think there’s more hope for that now, Judy, though it will be a tough decision for the Justice Dept. If they indict, they dare not fail to convict. The case against Gov. Whitmer’s assailants was strong, but they were acquitted.

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  5. Annie, well done. What frustrates me is this happened only because a person with a fragile ego could not stand losing an election. This happened only because a person threw a hissy fit saying the election was stolen from him, when he had hired 1,000 attorneys by two months before to help him claim just that. This happened because people believed this person’s bogus claims (whose own attorney general called BS to his face) and accepted his invitation to come to DC and incited them to storm the Capitol.

    And, yet over 1/2 of the recent Republican primary elected officials espouse this election fraud BS. My guess is many of these know Trump’s claims are bogus (how it could be with the former president losing all but one of 65-ish court cases and every recount, audit and review), yet they must kowtow to the Wizard who does not want people to look behind the curtain.

    His own niece said her uncle will burn it all down to avoid losing the election. Folks what he is burning down is our community. We cannot let this 70-ish old toddler do this. We need to let him pitch his little hissy fit and charge him with sedition. Keith

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    1. Keith, what a fine, succinct summary this is! I only hope enough Americans are paying attention to the hearings and will be awakened to how urgent the need is to recapture our nation from the spreading damage of the Big Lie. Apathy is the key danger I see.

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    2. In the darkest night the 3 AM demons arrive. Fear overwhelms and doubt for the dawn grows. But here we can be brave for the light always follows the dark. Disoriented we came to believe that a clown was going to uproot 200 years of popular rule. Thursday night the dawn we hope for rose. We woke up from the nightmare that this time the idiot would succeed. Knowing even as the darkness fell that this inadequacy was always doomed to failure. We all knew what he is, America’s biggest LOSER.

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    1. Thank you, my friend, for your generous words! I am haunted by Edwards’ descriptions of what she and her fellow officers went through to protect us all—holding back sadistic thugs doing the bidding of the sadist-in-chief!

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      1. I know just what you mean … the entire time Edwards was telling her story I was fighting back tears. Today I saw where somebody had said that it was no big deal, that she merely slipped and hit her head, and I was enraged! How dare they??? Sigh. Anyway, your poem was beautiful and I plan to reblog it sometime Monday afternoon! Wish I had your talent, but a bawdry 4-line ditty is about as close as I can come to composing poetry!

        And I agree: hard to fathom anyone not deeply moved by Officer Edwards. Perhaps some would have needed her to lose control and bawl—just the opposite of who she is and her extraordinary strength.

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      2. So very nice of you to reblog, Jill—deeply appreciated.

        I find I turn to acrostics when I’m very moved or troubled. I bet you have more talent than you think. If you want to try, pick out a meaningful word or phrase, type the letters vertically, then let your mind roam…

        Liked by 1 person

      3. My pleasure, Annie! And … I DID it!!! I thought I couldn’t do poetry, never even tried an acrostic, so after reading your comment, I thought … “Hmmmm … I’m just gonna try that” … and I was amazed, but within three minutes I had this:

        Feelings of hopelessness or despair
        Ramble through my mind
        Unbidden and unwelcome
        Still they keep on coming
        Ten minutes of sleep followed by 45 minutes of awake
        Repeat once per hour
        At last, dawn arrives and I can rise to begin yet another day
        To once again read and write
        In sync with the news of the day
        Or perhaps not in synch, as my mind takes over
        Next day, more of the same

        Liked by 1 person

  9. Sadly the courage of the people on the front line seems to be masking what is either incompetence or betrayal of those in the upper ranks.
    Even with notice of disturbance and violent rhetoric the command structure did not call in any extra people to protect the capital.
    Nor did they issue riot gear or ask that reinforcements be in place before the event.
    This to should be investigated.

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  10. Reblogged this on Filosofa's Word and commented:
    Our friend Annie penned this beautiful poem that I thought deserved to be shared. It honours the Capitol Police who gave their all on that fateful day, and specifically Officer Caroline Edwards whose moving testimony last Thursday night brought a tear to many an eye. Thank you, Annie, for sharing your talents and this moving poem with us.

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  12. Very well done Annie! Bravo.

    And to think, as we watched (again) those horrid videos of the Jan. 6 Attack, and those few officers on their radios BEGGING for backup, BEGGING for reinforcements and help… while the two TOP men watched on TV, grinning(?), smiling(?), and their own Commander-in-Chief quoted as saying during those unprecedented 5-6 hours doing nothing said: “I believe our people have the right idea” to hang Mike Pence and kill Capitol Police Officers and perhaps members of Congress.

    What the American people are now finding out in much more detail about what REALLY took place behind closed doors in the White House(?), is SO FAR REMOVED from our reasonable, civil, legal democratic norms and traditions laid out by our six (6) Core Founding Fathers… that it is near impossible to believe we now live in the same United States of America myself and 300+ million other Americans grew up in between the late 1960’s up to say 2010. My state of Texas now resembles NOTHING like it was in those 5-decades! 😔

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    1. Thank you so much, Professor Taboo. Nice to hear from you!

      It is, indeed frightening to be living in these deeply troubling times. I try hard to live by the wonderful Madeleine Albright’s self-description: “I’m an optimist who worries a lot.” We have had dark times in our national past—though none of such norm-breaking. The Jan 6 Select Committee has certainly exceeded the expectations of many, including me, and they give me hope.

      But we need to break through and get a massive turnout in November.

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    1. Thank you for reblogging! And still these brave souls must put up with gaslighting from Big Liars. I so hope the Jan 6 Committee hearings will at least reduce that awfulness.
      Cheers,
      Annie

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      3. You deserve them Annie.🙂
        I’m a brit but have always thought of the USA as my kind of adopted country and thus rage a lot about what that shabby crew are doing to ‘my’ USA (even with its flaws…what nation doesn’t have those?)
        Your well-crafted and artistic poem struck exactly the right chords.
        Keep on keeping on.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. I really like that ‘my USA’ sentiment. It’s comforting to know our friends are with us as we struggle to protect what’s best about our country—and move it further. (And I’ve been worrying about you folks since the beginning of Brexit…)

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Brexit is something of a British folly for folk who forgot we don’t have a very large armed forces navy and next to nothing of our own Mercantile fleet. Where that goes, who can tell? With The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Parliments all having their own ‘issues’ over this, it’s difficult to say where this will end up. (Northern Ireland as always is the potential tinder box) We might well stumble, bumble and fudge our way through, it is a British style.
        I fear more for you folk in the USA

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you, Matthew. And then, after so heroically serving, and suffering physical and mental injuries, these officers continue to endure gaslighting from Republican legislators who lived through it but claim it was no big deal. So disgraceful! I hope they’ll pay a price for their perfidy.

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