Morning, world.

Yesterday was one of the scariest days in my adult life. Seeing armed insurrectionists….domestic terrorists…storm into the Capital in an effort to disrupt the certification of an election made my heart sink down into my heels.

Seeing so many people whose skin tone matched mine but whose ideals were so far away from what I’d consider decent terrified me.

Watching police officers let them in to loot, destroy, intimidate others in an attempt to enthrone a man who would turn our Republic into a dictatorship made this cop’s daughter question the values my father taught me.

Actions have consequences. I learned that early in life. I also learned that those varied depending on factors that were out of my control. Consequences could be more severe for someone who is not white, or rich, or simply because a family wants to ‘uphold our reputation’.

For the record, that was one reason my rapes/molestation were never reported to the authorities. My family name ‘meant’ something in town and my parents didn’t want to tarnish it in some way.

What I saw yesterday was, as a man I respect a great deal said, “people of all ages get to throw a temper tantrum because they didn’t get their way…without consequence.”

That mob of domestic terrorists are the same ones who screamed we needed to ‘get over it’ in 2016. They’ve spent the last 4 years reveling in a ‘leader’ who couldn’t lead. One who wouldn’t take responsibility for anything he said or did. One who incited the violence and then retreated to safety, expecting his loyal foot soldiers who probably wouldn’t make 2 weeks in boot camp to do his dirty work.

Some will say authors shouldn’t get political. That we should just promote our books, ignore the world, and pretend everything is rainbows and unicorn farts. That, since I’m still unknown to the vast majority of readers, I should stay quiet on my views because it could hurt me down the road.

That’s the same sort of twisted logic my parents had when they decided not to press charges against my rapists.

That’s the same sort of logic that gets used when someone knows you’re right and they just don’t want to admit it.

Silence only aids and abets the tormenter. It means they get to blithely dance down the road with no consequences.

I am tired of being told my voice doesn’t matter unless I say what you want to hear. I was taught that words, like actions, have consequences. I choose both carefully.

There’s a whole lot of people who never learned that. And showed off their whiny entitlement to the world.

BB/Chan Eil Eagal Orm