Our youngest granddaughter was a Covid era baby, born in the summer of 2020 in Buffalo.

Since reliable third party day care was not available during that period and since both of her parents have full time jobs, my wife Sue and I became her weekday caretakers, driving back and forth to Buffalo from Jamestown on alternating days. It was truly an amazing experience for me as a sixty five year old man and the unique bond that I formed with her during that time will last a lifetime.

On January 6, 2021, it was my day to be with my granddaughter and as I traveled to Buffalo during the early morning hours, I listened to the news as I knew what was supposed to happen that day legally and what was speculated that may also happen illegally. It filled me with a feeling of foreboding and dread. My day started out with the usual routine of feeding, playing, diaper changing, etc. (she was about six months old at the time). We normally did not watch much TV during these days but this day I did turn on a news channel and watched the incredible and ugly events as they unfolded with my sweet innocent granddaughter, whose future wellbeing was all that I could think about.

I watched the rabble rousing speech of the President and his call to action to his supporters. I watched in shock and disgust as the out of control mob attacked the Capitol of the United States, the symbol of the dream of democracy for America and the beacon of freedom for the entire world. This was an organized band of insurrectionists whose mission was to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election and take over the country by force.

These were vicious, violent people who destroyed public property and injured, maimed and killed innocent members of the Capitol Police force. They would have also no doubt hanged Vice President Pence and injured or killed members of Congress had the brave men and women of the Capitol Police not secreted them off to safety where they continued to protect them. This account of what happened did not come to me from some biased news report, I saw it live with my own eyes along with millions of Americans and others from around the world. There was no interpretation necessary and none was warranted and any other characterization of how this played out is just a flat out lie. I can remember hugging my granddaughter and telling her that everything was going to be alright even though she obviously had no idea what was going on.

I have lived through many major events that have shaken this county to its core; the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, Vietnam, the civil unrest of the sixties and early seventies, the economic turmoil of the early eighties, 911, the Gulf Wars, etc, but this was clearly different. Here were United States citizens attacking the bastion of their own government at the urging of and seemingly with the approval of the President of the United States.

It was a disgusting and shocking display of treason and terrorism that played out live in front of millions of people all over the world. I sensed that former presidents who gave their all to create, save and grow this great nation like Washington, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt were rolling in their graves along with the millions who have served to protect our precious freedom. Here was a crack in the American Dream- the Great Experiment of Democracy and I feared that this may be the beginning of the end of it and I cried as I held my granddaughter during her nap as I thought about what this could mean for her future and the futures of all of our grandchildren.

But then the election results were certified and the county began to move on. The events of January 6th were investigated, hundreds of arrests were made and many perpetrators were convicted and sent to jail. The actions of the mob and the President were widely condemned even by Republican members of Congress. It seemed like we had dodged a bullet, that democracy had hung on by a thread and that we were slowly getting back on track. But it was like having a bad dream that you suddenly wake up from and feel relieved that it was just a dream… until the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you know that there is more coming.

I did not think that Trump could be re-elected after the events of January 6th and everything that happened over the past four years. But our great system worked- he got the most votes, won the election and will be in power for the next four years. The day after his inauguration, he granted blanket pardons to everyone who was convicted of wrongdoing on January 6th, even the most violent offenders who seriously injured and killed Capitol Police Officers. As a result, neither the President nor members of the mob itself, will be held accountable for the horrible actions that occurred that day. Instead, they have been made into heroes, not in a fight to save our precious democracy, but in a selfish fight to gain political power. In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln stated that our democratic system is “Government of the people, by the people and for the people.” I’m not an historian, but I’ll bet he meant all the people. By issuing this blanket pardon, Trump has clearly illustrated that his version of this important touchstone statement would be “Government of my people, by my people and for my people.”

I’m not an alarmist nor a conspiracy theorist. I consider myself to be an objective, practical fairly intelligent person. I am not a liberal democrat, in fact I’m not a democrat at all. I’m an independent (small i) and I vote for the candidates that I feel have personal attributes and ideals that are aligned with my own no matter what party they may belong to. Accordingly, my comments in this letter have absolutely no political basis whatsoever. I hope that I am mistaken, but I fear that our precious democratic way of life will not be able to survive in a world where truth doesn’t matter, where there is no accountability for wrongdoing by those in power, and where mean spirited and threatening actions take over for compassionate and understanding behavior. We have given absolute power to a man who feels that he is invincible and above the law and whose main concern seems to be his own well being above the well being of this country. Most of alI, I fear for all of our grandchildren as well all of the young people of this county and I pray that the actions taken over the next four years will not lead to the unravelling of the fabric of this great nation that has been weaved over the last two hundred and fifty years.

Thomas P. Benson is a Jamestown resident.