It’s obvious after the events at the Capitol building that not everyone read my Editor’s Note last week, as kindness and common sense were tossed out the window.

I am still in shock over the actions of the people who broke into the Capitol during what started out as a peaceful protest.

When will people learn that damaging property, looting and violence aren’t the way to bring about the changes they desire.

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I’m not convinced that all of the people who stormed the Capitol were Trump supporters, but those that were should be ashamed of themselves.

The media should be ashamed of themselves as well. They continually reported about “peaceful protests” last summer while people were looting and setting fire to buildings behind them. Makes one wonder if the mainstream media can tell the difference between anarchy and peaceful protests.

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Then there are the politicians. They are supposed to be paragons of decency. Instead they are calling each other names, playing dirty politics and bullying those that don’t agree with them. I think we need to reconsider the title “honorable” when we refer to them because they have forgotten about what that word means.

I looked up the word honorable and these are the qualities that came up:

deserving of esteem and respect

worthy of being honored; entitled to honor and respect

adhering to ethical and moral principles

not disposed to cheat or defraud; not deceptive or fraudulent.

They should be referred to as “public servants” to remind them of their position because they’ve forgotten that they work for us, the American people. And that we pay them their lofty salaries and benefits that are better than any that we have, not to mention their retirement. They seem to have an agenda that has nothing to do with governing and representing the people who voted them in office.

That brings me back to the media. They are supposed to be our watchdogs, digging up dirt on all politicians not just those that they oppose. They have access that we don’t have to politicians and they are charged with being an unbiased source of information.

I think we need to hold journalists and politicians to higher standards and I don’t think we need a peaceful protest or anarchy to do this. Our power is our vote. We need to vote with our heads not our hearts and, because we can’t count on journalists, we need to find out everything we can about politicians before we vote for them. And because our vote is so important, we need to make sure that our voting systems are safe, secure and uniform in every state. We may have to form state organizations of honorable, unbiased Americans in each state to accomplish this goal because politicians cannot be trusted to do this most important job.