Don’t mean to get political but when mentioning the above name, its really hard not to.
If the name isn’t familiar to you, Ashli Babbitt is the 35 year old Air Force Veteran who became a fervent Trump supporter and who was present during the January 6th Insurrection, wherein a bunch of crazed Trump supporters broke into Congress and threatened the lives of Senators, Congressmen and women, and the police.
Ashli Babbitt was one of them.
Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot by police on January 6th and during the insurrection as she climbed through a busted window in an attempt to reach the Speaker’s Lobby.
Over on CNN.com, Scott Glover presents an article about her…
To some, she’s a patriot. To others, a domestic terrorist. How the memory of a woman killed in the Capitol riot got so politicized
I read the article and was rather… disturbed by it.
Why?
Because it seems that in trying to humanize Ms. Babbitt, Mr. Glover forgets what Ms. Babbitt’s -and all the other insurrectionists- actions were on January 6th. Indeed, he seems to want to present such a sympathetic picture of Ms. Babbitt that he forgets the suffering of the police officers, people that deserve this sort of coverage far more than the insurrectionists who attempted to destroy the government because they believed the idiotic lies of the worst President the United States has ever had.
Whatever/whomever Ms. Babbitt was before January 6th, her actions on that date and their end result are impossible to soften.
She might have been the sweetest person in the world… but on January 6th she was part of an insurrection. On January 6th she was near the Speaker’s Lobby and attempted to break into it.
She wasn’t there to make friends. She wasn’t there to have a polite political discussion.
Her actions -and those of the insurrectionists around her- were threatening. Worse, Ms. Babbitt was an Air Force veteran. She should have known better.
She was fatally shot because she attempted to break through a busted window and was -along with a crowd of crazed insurrectionists- mere feet away from congressmen and senators.
Her bizarre and threatening actions resulted in her own death.
While I can understand those on the far right fringe calling her a martyr, I cannot understand this author and CNN attempting to present another infuriating “both sides” type of article for someone who very clearly lost her way in the right wing propaganda hysterisphere.
I have no ill will toward Ms. Babbitt’s family, who are clearly hurt by her death.
But the reality is that we as a nation were in great danger from the likes of Ms. Babbitt and others like her and are very fortunate the events of January 6th weren’t far, far worse than they were.
I feel for Ms. Babbitt’s family, certainly. But it’s hard to feel much sympathy for Ms. Babbitt herself.
Or for the others who so completely gave themselves over to the insurrection.