A large bronze plaque hangs on a wall near the east entrance of the U.S. Capitol.
It's been on my mind for the past 10 days.
It honors unlikely heroes. Everyday people who summoned bravery to save lives, sacrificing their own in the process. They saved members of Congress, regardless of their political views. Their heroism preserved the house of America's democracy — the Capitol.
Those heroes were the 40 passengers and crew members of United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001. Aside from the crew, nearly all were strangers to each other when hijackers took over their flight, an excursion intended to quietly take them from New Jersey to San Francisco. Through discreet cellphone calls to loved ones, the passengers learned that coordinated terrorist hijackers had sent three other jetliners crashing into the World Trade Center in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Flight 93 passengers saw their crew attacked and the plane rerouted eastward, toward Washington — less than a half-hour away.
In a matter of minutes, they took a vote, prayed and rushed the cockpit, trying to overtake the hijackers. They didn't wrest control of the aircraft, but did force the hijackers to crash it in a quiet Pennsylvania field, short of their likely target, the Capitol.
All of those passengers and crew members perished — the last of nearly 3,000 people killed that morning, 9/11.
Grateful members of Congress helped dedicate the plaque in 2009. It lists the names of the 40 passengers and crew members. It also carries this message: "In memory of the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93, whose brave sacrifice on September 11, 2001, not only saved countless lives but may have saved the U.S. Capitol from destruction."
On the day of the dedication, the sister of a Flight 93 passenger told an Associated Press reporter, "I'm glad this plaque is being dedicated today, and not only for the passengers and crew of Flight 93, but for everybody. This really shows the strength of the human heart. At the end of the day, we stand for our country."
Almost 20 years later, violent rioters disgracefully breached and vandalized that same Capitol building. It was a dark, awful day in America's history.
The rioters launched that ugly Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol and democracy, trying to disrupt Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election, duly won by former Vice President Joe Biden over incumbent President Donald Trump. It followed months of the president falsely claiming he'd won the election and repeating debunked allegations of widespread voter fraud, despite multiple recounts by multiple states verifying the outcome, and multiple judges dismissing his lawyers' flimsy lawsuits. The president incited a crowd of his deluded supporters at that Jan. 6 rally, which led hundreds to then invade the Capitol.
The assault killed a police officer and four others, injured dozens of other police officers, trashed the Capitol, and forced members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence, serving as the Senate president, to evacuate and take shelter from insurrectionists hunting the VP and lawmakers.
A week later, the U.S. House rightly impeached the president for inciting the insurrection. Ten representatives from Trump's own Republican Party admirably joined Democrats in a bipartisan vote for impeachment, properly holding the president accountable.
Wednesday, two weeks after the attack, Biden will be inaugurated as the nation's 46th president. Unlike any inauguration since the Civil War, the ceremony — already limited by the raging coronavirus pandemic — will unfold with National Guard troops protecting the locked down capital city, because of threats of more violence from extremist groups supporting the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The situation is disheartening and disturbing.
Most of America is ready to put the chaos and division behind, and anxious to see a new President Biden redirect the country's focus — not on himself, but rather on overcoming the pandemic. They're ready to see a comprehensive and brisk distribution of COVID-19 vaccines — an amazing achievement by scientists and doctors. They're ready for small businesses and families to receive well-coordinated relief funds to make it through the economic hardships of the past year. They're ready for honesty, and not bogus, internet-boiled conspiracy theories.
Most Americans want to see us helping each other, not plotting attacks against each other.
This is the time when Americans need to pull together, not apart. COVID-19 presents the harshest public health crisis in a century. Its death toll is nearing 400,000 people in the U.S. and 2 million worldwide. It is real.
That plaque affixed to the wall inside the Capitol exemplifies the true and best spirit of America. Three-dozen strangers aboard Flight 93 saved so much on that day 20 years ago. They didn't split into factions of Republicans or Democrats, Christians or Jews or Muslims, one race or another, rich or poor. They teamed up, as fellow humans and fellow Americans.
The nation needs some teamwork, right now. It's time to show the strength of the human heart.
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