Friends, I need to say this and I hope you will hear me out. Perhaps some of this will be unpopular, but I am more than happy to discuss in a civil manner.

We do need unity going forward. We do need healing. But Fareed Zakaria is wrong: the necessary unity/healing and the punishment for wrongdoing are not mutually exclusive.

Consider this: A child gets upset because he can’t find his Nintendo Switch and assumes his mom took it away. The child slaps his mother in anger. Only after investigation is Mom able to say “I didn’t take it. It wasn’t where you said you left it…I found it over there.” The incident happened because of a misunderstanding. As a parent, do you think it’s better to say “I understand why he did it, and he was mistaken, but if I punish him it will make him more angry and he might hit me again”? Or is it better to say you understand his anger, yet he still has to be punished in order to show him that it’s never appropriate to hit his mom?

Obviously, the child needs to be taught that it’s not appropriate to hit. I guarantee you, without consequence he will hit again. The punishment might make him angry, but that issue needs to be addressed separately (anger management is also a very important lesson). Some people might feel there are justified moments to hit someone, but as a victim of domestic abuse, I cannot fathom ever putting someone on the receiving end of physical violence no matter how angry I am. Healthy and constructive responses to moments of anger, grief, sorrow, etc must be learned.

Life lessons don’t often come without the wisdom of consequences.

Words have consequences.

Actions have consequences.

Assumptions have consequences.

Words and actions can be constructive, or destructive.

Apologies go a LONG way in healing, but that doesn’t mean the action preceding it was okay.

Healing comes separately from punishment, and we need to be ready to do both.

Unpopular opinion: Left-leaning media who were friendly to CHAZ/CHOP or Portland situation *and* who also gave little-to-no reporting about any consequences for the incidents definitely gave fuel to the right-leaning anti-mainstream-media groups, including (no, *especially*) Fox News viewers. The lack of unbiased coverage also emboldened right-wing militia groups to believe the occupancy of government property didn’t need to carry penalty, as long as there is public support of the cause. The people who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday believed in their cause, and believed they had a lot of public support. They were likely banking on liberal media being hypocritical in order to make their case even stronger.

I feel we all need to recognize that support for a cause cannot soften our resolve to hold people accountable when they break the law in the name of that cause. I’m speaking to all of us, including myself. I’m learning and growing every day, so this doesn’t absolve my own posts from the tendency to be emotional or flat-out wrong.

If you’re reading this, I want to tell you that your “side” isn’t always right. Everything comes full circle eventually. When you defend your “side” today for something, rest assured your opponent will use those words against you a year from now when you’re criticizing them for following your example. If your words and actions show the best of you, and the best of your cause, then you won’t have to worry about “the others” doing damage to your world view when they follow your example.

Right, wrong, or indifferent (which…how can you be indifferent to what happened at the U.S. Capitol on December 6?), we need to be ready to offer consequences with the intent of rehabilitation and precedent, rather than merely punitive. Hold the line, so that no one can cross it again. Not even ourselves, when the tables eventually turn.

“They” will always be “we” sometime in the future.

I know that unity is important going forward. Yet if our leaders and our law enforcement do not hold accountable President Trump or the members of the House and Senate who encouraged the enragement of citizens that then committed seditious acts, then these people will do it again. These folks committed acts of anger based on untruths, but they must know that it is never acceptable to proverbially punch mother in the face.

Mother Liberty deserves better.