Dan Rather: January 6 is not ancient history. And neither are the lies that brought us to the brink.

[Nevilledog]

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Dan Rather
@DanRather
·
Feb 7, 2021
January 6 is not ancient history. And neither are the lies that brought us to the brink. Those who peddled in these lies (or even just excused them) and thus stoked an insurrectionist mob, should not be allowed to slink back into credible discourse without a serious reckoning.

Dan Rather
@DanRather
Read some of my longer thoughts on 1/6 here:

The Echoes of January 6
The nature of my work has brought me to many dangerous places. I do not say this as a boast, nor do I think of myself as particularly courageous. I have witnessed levels of courage in others that...
steady.substack.com
10:34 AM · Feb 7, 2021

https://steady.substack.com/p/the-echoes-of-january-6

The nature of my work has brought me to many dangerous places. I do not say this as a boast, nor do I think of myself as particularly courageous. I have witnessed levels of courage in others that leave me in awe. I’ve seen obvious courage from soldiers and first responders, but also the quiet courage of single mothers working two jobs to provide a better life for their children. I wish only to state that I have witnessed danger firsthand, many times.

Often the danger is so apparent all you have to do is open your eyes (or ears, or nose —danger often strikes many of the senses). War zones are obvious for their danger. The jungle patrols of Vietnam, the mountain outposts of Afghanistan, the whizzing bullets of Sarajevo, and Iraq’s “Triangle of Death.” Sometimes danger comes in the form of Mother Nature, the roaring winds of a hurricane, the rising floodwaters of a river quickly escaping its banks. Our minds can also sometimes trick us into thinking there is danger when there isn’t. Our prejudices and biases make us see people and places as threats, when they aren’t.

But sometimes danger surprises you, because it explodes in a place you think is safe. One of the most disconcerting elements of covering the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s, was that danger could burst forth suddenly in a place that, to my mind at that time at least, seemed like it would be perfectly safe. I would cover the towns and the cities of the deep South, and they often looked like idyllic slices of Americana: churches, manicured town squares, courthouses, five and dime shops, schools, movie theaters, a sleepy Main Street. People would tip their hat with a sir, or a ma’am. And yet, when they found out who we were —reporters from CBS News (often referred to then as the Colored Broadcasting Service, on account of covering civil rights), this false tranquility could explode into menacing violence. We were chased and our crew beaten with cue sticks and fists. There was always the threat that it could have been even worse.

To be sure, there were many times in the Civil Rights Movement when a violence, or the threat thereof, was out in the open.

I covered some Klan rallies at night, complete with the burning cross, and I can still feel the hair on the back of my neck rise at the thought. It was terrifying, and meant to be so. Then there were the showdowns, the threat and actions of force sanctioned by the state —fire hoses in Birmingham, troopers on the other side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. But whether facing an ambush on the battlefield or racists lying in wait on a quiet afternoon, I have often found the threat you cannot see the most terrifying. It’s sort of like a camera shot in a horror movie from the point of view of the killer stalking the victim.

*snip*

[Duppers]

1. K & R. & Retweeted.

I retweet so many posts on DU ...
because most Americans do not read DU, of course, but a huge number do read Twitter and...and... even some Republicans still respect Dan Rather.

Repubs live in a bubble that we must at least try to pop.

[Nevilledog]

2. This is my version of retweeting.....lol