An open letter to our congressional delegation: Jan. 20 was a much-needed balm to our nation and our spirits. History in the making, it brought integrity, decency, and dignity back to the People’s House. It was soothing to the wound inflicted on our democracy these past four years, a wound cut deeper by events of Jan. 6. As with all wounds, healing cannot happen unless the site is cleansed otherwise it can fester and lead to rot.
President Joe Biden has his job to do to help the healing and is doing it. Congress has its job to do the same. To cleanse the wound, Congress must ensure that Donald Trump never holds federal office again. A majority vote can make this happen. As for the members of Congress who collaborated and enabled him, they too must be held accountable.
Accountability was spoken over and over again after Jan. 6. The need for it remains. Not vindictiveness, accountability. Unless there is a reckoning toward those who imperiled our democratic institutions and way of life, there can be no true healing. Integrity, decency, and dignity and are not diminished by accountability, rather it elevates them.
As members of Congress, in my name, I urge you to attend to this healing. If not impeachment, then barring Trump forever from public office is your duty. Expulsion of his collaborators will go far to cleansing this deep cut, allowing a clear and clean new day to emerge. I ask you to do the right thing.
SUSAN McKEVITT
Bradford