Reflections on January 6

By Bishop Adam J. Richardson, Jr., Retired

Last night, in our customary fashion, the Bishops prayed. During the prayer meeting, I confessed that I had not fully recovered from the results of the Election. I have vacillated between bewilderment and anger. For a good bit of the time, I have felt akin to the expression of the poet Edwin Markham, who wrote “The Man With the Hoe.” I learned it in 11th grade English class at the insistence of Miss Frankie Berry. Markham writes, “Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox.” It means to be in a state so emotionally numb as to be essentially like a farm animal, simply going through the motions in a field, like an ox.

I did not vote for Donald John Trump. Of course not. Like high-profile members of his party, including his former vice president, I did not think he was fit for the office. He has far too many deficits, and he is a convicted felon. The list is long of his brushes with the law. Though not a landslide with an alleged mandate, the majority of voters thought otherwise. They believed that character, for all it is cranked up to be, does not matter. But I’ll be praying for him after January 20. He will be president.

The voice of the people has spoken.  The vote has been tabulated. Like Vice President Kamala Harris, his formidable opponent, I will likewise concede. He won in a free and fair election.

No one challenged the outcome. No one yelled, “Stop the steal!” No one asked for a recount. No one has gone to court. There will be no riots or an attempted coup as it was four years ago today, on January 6. There will be no desecration of the Capitol, that citadel of democracy smeared with feces and urine left by the rioters, and police officers beaten, with some dying of their injuries.

There will be a peaceful transfer of power. No Democrat will be in court filing for an injunction to delay the inauguration.  I’ll be praying that even at age 78, his health will be adequate, that his mind will be alert, and that he will not be affected by Sundown Syndrome. I pray that he will not be stupid or say stupid things–at least, no more than he has already exhibited. I pray that there is no assassin waiting to take him out. I am praying that “No weapon formed against him will prosper.” If anything should happen to him, the vice president who will succeed him is a much more effective communicator, possessing the carnival barker’s gift of gab with a Yale law degree. He’d be dangerous. God bless Donald Trump. We see who’s waiting in the wings. God bless America  — PLEASE!