A Message About the Rioting and Violence in the Capitol
January 8, 2021
Dear Hastings Community,
Happy New Year! But is it really a happy new year? I think we all couldn’t wait to put 2020 behind us, which was an extraordinarily challenging year due to a pandemic that is still not over. I was looking forward to 2021 until Wednesday when we all watched in horror how an angry mob descended upon the Capitol at the invitation of the President of the United States of America.
Yesterday morning, I emailed the faculty and staff to encourage them to use their instructional time to help students process the disturbing images they saw on the news. Similarly, an invitation was extended to faculty and staff to come together at the end of the day to process our feelings about what we had observed on the news. In this safe space, a few of us listened to each other, shared our fears, and replayed images hard to erase.
The mob that heeded the President’s clarion call were patriots who came to hurt, maim, and kill, which they succeeded in doing. They proudly carried confederate flags, American flags, lead pipes used as weapons to strike police officers, Molotov cocktails, and a few pipe bombs which were left at the offices of the Democratic National Convention and Republican National Convention. We watched this sea of rage, churning like a cyclone in the middle of the Atlantic, gain entry into the Capitol building by breaching police barriers, scaling the facade of the building, bashing in windows and doors using various objects, and crawling through these broken windows and doors to take back their house. Once in, they menaced who they encountered, struck police officers with lead pipes, and beat Officer Brian D. Sicknick so badly that he died from his injuries. This upstanding group of citizens vandalized property and took a few souvenirs from the offices of our nation’s lawmakers. During their tour of the Capitol, they posed for selfies, smiled maskless and widely for the camera, and posted the photographic evidence of their carnage on social media. All of this happened while the President of the United States of America watched on television from his private office. What a day for America, the “shining city upon a hill”.
Condemnation is hardly a sufficient response to this horrifying and atrocious event. I am angry, deeply disturbed, and sickened by the actions of these patriotic pretenders. I am saddened by the death of Officer Sicknick who was murdered by this mob and express my sympathies to his family and colleagues. Besides Officer Sicknick, there were four members of the mob who had medical emergencies and died. I also express my sympathies to their families for the senseless loss of their lives. I don’t know about you, but I am tired of hearing this is not who we are. Of course, this is who we are.
Our history overflows with examples of why this is who we are through reoccurring acts of hatred, bigotry, racism, and antisemitism. According to Socratics, “True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life ourselves and the world around us”. We all have to be committed to educating ourselves, which is why I believe each of us has a responsibility to interrogate our history, learn what we may not have been exposed to when we were students, and suppress the rage that arises when the truth stings. Some of America’s darkest days are planted in the historical record about the enslavement of African Americans, the era of reconstruction, white supremacy, Jim Crow, the removal of Native Americans through the Trail of Tears, and the killing of six million Jews in Europe. This darkness fueled Wednesday’s violence. Our acceptance that there is a lot we may not know, coupled with a commitment to interrogate our assumptions, puts us in a position to transcend hatred, bigotry, racism, and antisemitism. To break free will be uncomfortable, but there is no other way forward in America except to keep repeating Wednesday.
So, what can we do? Each of us can create safe spaces to have bold and honest conversations with each other and with our children. It just happened that a study group was finishing 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari on Wednesday. Our discussion serendipitously gave us a way to start processing this notion of how we can know and not know at the same time. Anyone can either form or join a book study to discuss ideas and learn with others. The next book study I am offering is on The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein. I will share the dates and the Zoom link in next week’s Hastings Daily.
Along with my colleagues in Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, and Irvington, we continue to collaborate and find ways to reinforce messages in support of diversity and inclusion.
The Hastings Diversity Committee, lead by Ms. Jenice Mateo Toledo, has a collection of resources on our website found here. If you are looking for suggestions on how to talk about difficult topics with your children or adults, please don’t hesitate to email Ms. Mateo Toledo for suggestions. Her email address is [email protected]. Ms. Melissa Szymanski, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, is leading the District in implementing the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework. She is available to speak with you about how the framework will be utilized to ensure student-centered pedagogies are supported.
Unfortunately, there is no vaccine for hatred, bigotry, racism, and antisemitism. While we can’t control the conduct and behavior of others, we can control the extent to which we open our minds to the wisdom that will come when we learn all we can learn about what we don’t know.
I hope you have a safe and enjoyable weekend.
Warm regards,
Valerie Henning-Piedmonte, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
