When I taught middle and high school literature classes, one of the books I commonly taught was George Orwell’s Animal Farm. In a 1946 essay (“Why I Write”), Orwell explained “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism.” This is the kind of meaty theme I liked my students to explore through literature, and since Animal Farm is a relatively simple parable, it is appropriate for mature 6-12 students.

I bring that up because I never believed I would live through such an Animal Farm experience in the US, since it was based on the Russian Revolution. I never imagined that the US government would resort to that kind of rewriting history by changing the stories, or to be honest, the propaganda of what came before.

But here we are. President Trump and most of the national Republican Party (aided by their friends in right-wing media and social networks) are trying to convince us that January 6, 2021 was an act of patriotism rather than a violent attack on the US Capitol to thwart the results of a legitimate presidential election that they lost. They are trying to get us, the American people, to forget what we saw unfolding on TV and to believe their new version of our recent history. To do so, they are replicating all the techniques that Orwell used Animal Farm to warn us against.

You may remember at at the time, the Republicans who had fled from the riotous insurrectionists said things like this:

Mitch McConnell, R-KY and Senate Majority Leader:
“Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the Vice President… They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth — because he was angry he’d lost an election.” 

“There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”  (Feb. 13, 2021)

Lindsey Graham, R-SC:
“All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough”

“When it comes to accountability, the President needs to understand that his actions were the problem, not the solution, that the rally yesterday was unseemly, it got out of hand… I said on the floor of the Senate, I cast my vote accordingly, that Joe Biden is the legitimate president-elect of the United States.” (Jan. 6-7)

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE):
“This violence was the inevitable and ugly outcome of the president’s addiction to constantly stoking division” (Jan. 6-7)

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA):
“We saw bloodshed because a demagogue chose to spread falsehoods and sow distrust of his own fellow Americans”(Jan. 6-7)

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN):
“These actions at the U.S. Capitol by protestors are truly despicable and unacceptable. While I am safe and sheltering in place, these protests are prohibiting us from doing our constitutional duty. I condemn them in the strongest possible terms.” (Jan. 6-7)

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX):
“Today, the people’s House was attacked, which is an attack on the Republic itself. There is no excuse for it. A woman died. And people need to go to jail. And the President should never have spun up certain Americans to believe something that simply cannot be.” (Jan. 6-7)

Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
“This has been a truly tragic day for America. And we all join together in fully condemning the dangerous violence and destruction that occurred today in our Nation’s Capitol. Americans will always have the freedom of speech and the Constitutional right to protest, but violence in any form is absolutely unacceptable, it is anti-American, and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”  (Jan. 6-7)

But then, within months, Lindsey Graham was once again by Trump’s side, advising him on his impeachment trial. McConnell was pressuring Senate Republicans to vote against Trump’s impeachment. Others who strongly criticized President Trump’s conduct were walking back or even denying their statements, trying to get back into Trump’s good graces.

But then the spinning really began, Animal Farm style.

Stefanik claimed that it was Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who “bears responsibility” for the January 6th “tragedy.” U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) announced about a carefully-edited video of the event that “if you didn’t know the footage was from January 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.” He denied it was an insurrection and characterized the event as people walking through the Capitol taking photos.

The change in language got even worse when President Trump ran for another term. People like Mitch McConnell, who had condemned his conduct in the harshest terms, were endorsing him for President and calling for Republican unity. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who had previously called January 6 a terrorist attack MULTIPLE times, now described it as a protest that “devolved.” Stefanik’s concern was for the “January 6 hostages.” Trump started calling it “a day of love.” And on and on. Animal Farm Amerian style.

So what are those of us who still care about the truth to do? I have two suggestions:

1. VISIT THIS WEBSITE

First, bookmark this link: https://apps.npr.org/jan-6-archive/

Our beloved, if unfunded (donate if you can) National Public Radio has compiled an extensive archive of visual and written statements outlining the entire process leading up to January 6, the way the day itself unfolded, subsequent responses to the event, and our current state of affairs. NPR calls these times “Chapter 5: The pardons and rewriting of Jan. 6.”

This is a fabulous and important resource for our nation. NPR created this public database to safeguard all the information we have on Jan. 6, since Trump’s second term team had been deleting materials from public records and court cases. First, you can use to remind yourself that you are NOT the crazy one when your memories differ from all the positive spin Trump’s team is putting on that horrific day. It’s a wonderful way to better understand the entire event and to see how different politicians have used it for both policy goals and for PR. It reminds us of where we are today. And if you know someone who is less informed about the actual circumstances of the day, show them these files. Some people are totally unpersuadable, but if people are confused of misinformed, these files are pretty convincing that Jan. 6 was not as rosy as the Trump Administration (and friends) are trying to convince us it was.

Many thanks to NPR for protecting these records for us, the American people. In the past, I would expect the Smithsonian or the Library of Congress to have collected this data. However, President Trump is interfering with their missions, as he is with so many federal agencies. Thank goodness we still have a free press. And again, remember that a “free press” is not really free. Please support the media you trust with your dollars along with your clicks.

2. TELL YOUR STORIES ABOUT JAN 6 IN YOUR OWN WAYS

In Animal Farm, the animals fall prey to authoritarianism because they don’t tell their own stories about what is happening. Instead, they just accept what the leaders tell them. So, after a period of time, what used to be white is now black, and what used to be black is now white (metaphorically, not literally).

For me, the events of Jan. 6 are seared into my brain. I remember watching the live video, horrified and crying. It struck me harder than many, I’m sure, since I consider DC to be my home town. I had celebrated so many joyous times on the National Mall–concerts, festivals, picnics, fireworks, parades, and yes, PEACEFUL mass protests. My first professional job out of college was with the League of Women Voters, so I sometimes attended hearings or meetings or other business at the Capitol as part of my job. To see a place I had only experienced as the seat of our government being violently attacked by American citizens…well, it broke my heart.

So I was really disappointed this week when I was talking to my son about Jan. 6 and he had no idea what had happened that day.

I get it. He had only just returned to college for the winter/spring semester and was wrapped up in “back to school” events. And while we visited Washington DC regularly throughout his life, it has never been his home. So we talked about it, and had some disagreements about it, and that’s OK.

But it was a great reminder that we need to share our stories with others, especially the younger generations (for those of us who are more on the mature side of life).

Therefore, I decided I should commemorate Jan. 6 through one of my favorite techniques: serving a special meal. After thinking of various possibilities, I decided to create a new recipe: January 6 Remembrance Soup!

However, I wanted it to taste good and be a celebration. So this is not a soup representing ALL the memories of Jan 6. This is a soup that represents the HEROES of January 6.

There is only one food that I associate with the US Capitol: a dish long served in the Senate cafeteria called Senate Bean Soup. So I started with that as the basis for my soup. You can find the original recipe at: https://www.senate.gov/about/traditions-symbols/senate-bean-soup.htm

I started with the modern recipe. I left out the ham hocks because my son is a vegetarian. However, for a meat-eating crowd, I would substitute smoked turkey drumsticks or wings for the ham hocks. Turkey is one of our few indigenous meats, so I think it is more appropriate for this uniquely American soup.

Now, you can make chicken noodle soup by buying broth, putting some chicken and noodles into it, heating it all up, and eating it. But it will not be good chicken noodle soup. So I wanted to add things to the existing recipe both to give it more flavor nuances and to represent my heroic elements of the actual January 6 event.

I started with a vegetable base. These are typically ingredients that you don’t particularly notice, but make a difference in the soup’s overall flavor. In my case, these things represented parts of democracy that I, at least, used to take for granted.

First there are the onions. To me, onions represent the system of different parts of our governmental system that provides strength and stability. As Shrek the cartoon ogre explains when comparing himself to that vegetable, onions have layers. So does our government. We have the three major branches of government: President/Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary. To me, the Federal Bureaucracy is its own layer, supporting and working with all branches, although technically it is part of the Executive branch. But we also national and regional layers of government, broken down into Federal, State, and Local (often several different subcomponents of local). All together, I believe these layers of government, when working together smoothly, have created a great system of living for millions of Americans. Each is limited on its own, but together it has provided the longest-standing and most stable democracy in modern times. Likewise, the onion on its own is a very hardy and stable vegetable. But if you separate the layers, each on its own is weak and decays rapidly. (METAPHOR ALERT: after all, I AM a literature teacher.) Needless to say, I think our onion is being pulled apart by the Trump Administration…but that is a subject for another blog post.

Then comes celery. Celery is another strong and sturdy vegetable. For me, celery represents the bureaucracy–all those millions of federal and other govermental workers. Elected officials come and go, but, at least under normal times, the bureaucracy lasts forever. Bureaucracy provides the backbone to our governmental systems. They establish the structures and procedures and get most of the actual work done. We don’t know who these people are, but they send us our tax refunds and try to make sure our airplanes don’t collide in the air and regulate our environment and build our roads and so many other things that make life in the US so good. So to me, they are always unsung heroes (confessional note: my father was part of the federal government). But they are an essential part of the January 6 hero story. Because once the riots got out of hand and the members of Congress were evacuated from the building, it was up to the bureaucracy–the legislative staff–to gather up the actual voting records and get them to safe place before they could be harmed by the insurrectionists. They didn’t have any Capitol Police ushering off to some secure facility. What they did took a lot of courage and commitment to our country and to the sanctity of our elections. And we don’t even know their names. But thank you, Celery People.

Then we have BLUE potatoes. Those represent the so-called “thin blue line”…the police whose job is to protect us all. It this case, it was first the Capitol Police, eventually joined by the Washington Metropolitan Police and National Guard units from multiple states (I know at least Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey National Guard units were there and eventually the National Guard units for DC itself). It was the Police who bore the brunt of rage of the rioters, resulting in several deaths and nearly 200 injuries. There is that famous video of the Policeman who made himself a target once rioters entered the building to draw them away from where Congress was evacuating right across the hall. These are more people whose names we don’t know, but to whom we owe great gratitude for their services.

Then we have the beans. The beans represent Congress itself. As poorly as many of them have acted once the shock of Jan 6 wore off, they, too, did their job that day. Once the building was cleared, they returned and immediately went back to business. I’m sure they were scared and stressed and exhausted. They didn’t get to go home and change clothes or to hug their children and partners and family members who had been terrified about their safety. They gathered in the House and Senate floors and certified the vote, making sure the voice of the American people was heard. They declared the true winner of the people’s votes, Joe Biden, as President of the United States.

You can’t see it in the photo, but I also put a cup of red lentils in the soup. The lentils are to represent Vice President Mike Pence, who has a particular heroic part in this story. Mike Pence withstood the personal pressure President Trump put on him to declare the election invalid. I’m sure it was intense and unpleasant. But Vice President Pence, as much as I disagree with him politically, has always been a man of conscience and of principle. And unlike MANY other Republicans, he was not going to break that for Donald Trump. He may have heard the insurrectionists’ chants to “HANG MIKE PENCE.” Still, he did his constitutional duty and upheld the vote. If you are wondering about the lentils, well, lentils in Italy and many other countries represent prosperity because they look like small coins. And the name Pence literally means “pennies.” So that seemed like the best food to represent him. And I chose red for Republican, as well as a nice color contrast.

Next to the soup you can see some bread. It is perfect for the soup because it is Sourdough Rosemary Focaccia. This represents Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. She was responsible for so much that night, just as she has been for so much of her career. After Vice President Pence, she was the one person the rioters were most avidly seeking to hurt. That bread is perfect because it includes her Italian roots with the focaccia, her San Francisco political base with the sourdough, and the fact that Rosemary has traditionally been the flower/herb for Rememberance.

The yellow corn represents the American people. They are what this story is really all about. They got out and voted dispite the negativity and anger around the election and the threatening tone of at least one side’s campaign. They did their part in maintaining democracy by doing their civic duty of voting. So they deserved to have their votes counted and accepted as the basis for who was going to become the next President.

At the end, I added some cream to make the broth (which was only water) thicker and richer. To me, that represents life in the US. I believe our country was set up to serve the common people, represented by water, not the elite (such as using chicken brother). But each of us is pursing our own American dream of making our lives richer and more substantial. For many of us, that doesn’t necessarily mean financial riches…althought most of us wouldn’t turn that down. But the Declaration of Independence speaks of our right of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The cream represents that universal quest for all people in our country. Maybe it doesn’t relate directly to Jan 6. However, if we lose the right to choose our own leaders because it has been taken away by the powerful and/or the lawless, it makes it harder to believe that this is the land of opportunity and dreams.

Lastly, those bits of green are kale. Why kale? When I started on this recipe, I originally called it Democracy Prevailed Soup. But that sounded a bit much. I was trying to think of some kind of fun pun, but the only one I could think of was Democracy Pre-Kaled. Didn’t like that either. But kale is perhaps the sturdiest green. It does not wilt under the heat. It is strong and it is vibrant and it is healthy and nutrious. So I added the kale to represent American Democracy itself. That night, Democracy did Prevail. The kale attests to my belief that American Democracy will prevail again, despite the many threats it is facing at this moment.

And so that is my story and that is my soup. I can attest it was a delicious meal. Coming up with that recipe lifted me up from feeling sad and horrified about how SOME people are trying to rewrite history in regards to January 6. In the process, I remembered that in the end, January 6 should be a celebratory day. It was a day when people at all levels did their job in the face of anger and violence from an unlawful mob. It was a day when Democracy Prevailed.

This recipe project has taught me an important lesson. Yes, on January 6 we saw the US at its very worst. But that was only part of us. January 6 we mostly didn’t see, but found out later about other Americans who behaved at their highest and best. In my spiritual tradition, we believe that what we focus on expands. So when it comes to January 6, I need to stop fixating on the actions of those who broke American values, and concentrate on those who acted with high levels of bravery, self sacrifice, service, and dedication to our country and to our democratic system.

So in the future, when I find my faith in our democracy waning, maybe I’ll make myself another batch of Jan 6 Remembrance Soup!