This morning I was reading one of those articles about how we need to talk to them, understand them better, engage rather than condemn. As Lilith and I set off for the cemetery, I thought I'd ask my friend at the guard shack about the insurrection. I'd tell him I worked on Capitol Hill when I was younger, that I grew up outside DC and spent days of my life at the Capitol and nearby office buildings. I might even tell him about the time VP Bush's secret service men prevented me, twice, from walking next to the Longworth Building, because he was entering at the far end of the block. I'd ask him what he and his friends want. He was holding batches of flowers, preparing for a day of visitors. I'd talk to him. "I guess it got wild," I said, repeating his word of a couple weeks back. He looked at me from profile, saying through a half smile: "I guess we did." (I can't vouch for that sentence, though the pronoun did leap out at me.) I looked at him and said, "that was disgusting," and kept going, just catching a glimpse of the white guy who works with him as Lilith and I started to ascend the hill toward the mountains.
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