Dear Friends,

This past Wednesday I was frantic because I could not find an important document. I knew it was in my office right before the holiday break, and I could not remember where I put it. I had to find it! Did I file it? Was it in one of my towering “to-do” piles? Did I take it home last week? I couldn’t have thrown it away, right? I was determined to find it, so I started the task I hate most in the world … filing.

Reluctantly, I shut my office door, turned on some music, and began the tedious task of going through my piles. About two hours later, feeling pretty good about the progress I made (and the cleanliness of my desk), I decided to take a break and grab a coffee next door. I was feeling so giddy over my accomplishment that I treated myself to a mini cupcake to go along with my coffee, and even Kate noted my good mood. I soon returned to my office, only to see I had missed two phone calls, and had three-text messages from friends and family, each with the same message … “Are you seeing this”? I had no idea what they were talking about so I quickly jumped online to see what was going on.

To my shock, I saw social media posts, tweets and headlines of “Protestors storm the Capitol” … “National Guard called to DC” … “Rioters break window of the Capitol” … “Woman shot in the Chest”. Was this for real? This can’t be happening … how could this happen? … why isn’t anyone stopping it?”

I quickly found a news station that was showing live coverage of the event unfolding in D.C. and I found myself in utter shock, heartache and disbelieve at what I was seeing. In fact, I will tell you I started to shake, and cry. Even writing this now, a few days later, I can remember the feeling I had, the despair and horror I felt watching this. People were scaling the walls. They were struggling with the police who were trying to keep the barriers up. The video quickly recapped the scene in the chambers, where an armed person was trying to get into the room and there appeared to have been a standoff. Next, they were showing pictures of offices that were ransacked by the mob; one of the rioters was sitting at the desk of one of our elected officials with his feet up, smiling. There were photos of people in the chambers, sitting in the head chair, people carrying artifacts and items from the building, and photos of people hanging all over the steps of the Capitol. I have not felt this much shock, heartache and anger since 9-11. I felt much the same as I did that day as events unfolded throughout our country, and this brought it all back.

I am not going to take time in my column this week to talk about the election, the current administration, or the new one. I am not going to talk about political parties, local elections, the voting process, or how we could have avoided the events of last week. I’m not even going to touch on how this impacted the world’s view of the United States and what an uphill climb we have ahead of us to fix our reputation on the world stage.

I am simply appealing to you, on a personal level to stop. What happened last week was appalling, unnecessary and riddled with anger, hatred, and not a shred of humanity or decency. As a country, state, and community, we need to stop the anger and hatred. It has been building for years and over this past year, with all that we had to face together, this is the time to come together and say “no more”.

Where is our humanity? Where is our kindness to others? Do we only show compassion and forgiveness to those who think like we do? Are we only capable of showering humanity and respect on those that have earned it or we feel deserve this?

If you were not horrified by the events of last Wednesday, then I think you need to take a good, long look in the mirror and ask yourself “Why not”? To see the very heart of our country under attack by it’s own citizens, disrespected, people hurt, and violated like that was nothing less than evil. Personal property was rifled through and destroyed. National property was literally trampled on, and damaged.

Please. We need to stop this. Our children are watching. My daughters are watching. My 12-year old is asking me why people hate each other so much. It breaks my heart and I don’t know what to tell her because frankly, I don’t understand it myself.

Is political party, affiliation, red or blue, that important that we are willing to let it rip us apart at the seams? Ultimately, aren’t we all trying to do the best we can do and make decisions that help each other? At the end of the day, isn’t this all about working together for a better world?

Let us not let 2021 be remembered as the year we imploded. We overcame so much last year, and we are on the road to recovery. We need to do better as society, and as human beings.

No more, Chenango.

~ Kerri

p.s. If you were wondering, I did eventually find that document. I gave it to one of my colleagues for safe-keeping!