Written by Sarah Voelkers
Today is day 1393 of the Political Hostage Crisis. That makes 1393 days that our federal government has been going after the patriotic American citizens who went to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 to ask them to look into the questions and abnormalities of the election before certifying it. Were there some bad actors that day? Yes. Were there things done that shouldn’t have been done? Yes.
But tell me, why is the government going after disabled grandmas? And tell me what you would do if you were in a crowd singing the National Anthem and praying when you start getting hit by rubber bullets, you see someone beaten to death by a police officer, or you get swept into the Capitol because the crowd is so amazingly huge and tight that you will be trampled to death if you lean down to pick up the water bottle you dropped.
Just in October, twenty-four more people have been arrested, contacted by the FBI and told to turn themselves in, or raided at 5am with swat teams and drones and flash bangs thrown in their homes. Then hauled off to prison for a night before being released on their own recognizance.
But now your name and face have been plastered on all of the local and national news channels. You’re fired from your job because even if your employer would be willing to keep you on, they get phone calls 24/7 with threats. You’ve lost your passport because you’re a national flight risk. If you fly commercially, you have the SSSS notation marking you as a terrorist with the accompanying searches and delays. You can’t get a loan anymore, and your credit card company has canceled you. The friends and family you thought you could count on won’t associate with you anymore.
So now what? Jump into the legal world. Get assigned a public defender who believes you’re a criminal for being in DC that day and whom you’ve caught colluding with the DOJ against you. The government offers you a plea deal after charging you with things that you never did… Assaulting an officer? Well, the cloth of your American flag brushed his body cam. Knowingly trespassing on restricted grounds? But the police didn’t say anything to you when you hi-fived them while walking to the Capitol, even if you didn’t go inside.
How can you win? You see everyone else’s cases. There’s over 1500, and it’s a 99.9% conviction rate. You know you’ll be found guilty. Do you take a plea then? But there’s that fine print you have to agree to, the part that says they can keep coming after you even years later, that they can upgrade your charges at any time if they want to. And do you lie to yourself and your country and admit to something you never did while still having to serve prison time? But what’s the alternative? Be lied about every hour of your trial. Be denied the right to argue self-defense or even bring up the 1st amendment. Be denied access to your exculpatory evidence and the right to present evidence in court. And then the judge tells the jury that if you so much as gave a dirty look to the police that day, you are guilty of assaulting them. How can they find you innocent? How many additional years of your life will you be locked halfway across the country from your family without access to nutritious food, medical care, visits due to arbitrary lockdowns, the right to vote; where your kids and grandkids will grow up without you.
Each person has to make that decision for themselves. Some have to take the plea deal. But for those who stand up for truth and go to trial, I have nothing but the utmost respect.
I can’t emphasize enough how much these January Sixers (J6ers) and their families need you. Need you to stand with them. To love them. To help them. To pray for them and write them.
When my friend David had to “report for duty,” his stay-at-home wife and 3 kids are now not only kept far away from him, but who is going to provide for them? Where is the money going to come from when there is that extra dental appointment, or the refrigerator goes out? What about the house payment? Who is going to love on them when their neighbors are the ones who turned them in and their church won’t allow them to talk about anything they’re going through related to J6?
This is where we the Church, the body of Christ, need to be. “I was sick, and in prison, and you visited me.” Maybe it’s a letter you send to let them know they are not forgotten. (Check out PatriotMailProject.com for addresses.) Maybe you sponsor someone through American Patriot Relief’s Adopt-a-J6er program so they can get a little extra food each month and a sweatshirt as it gets colder and a toothbrush.(AmericanPatriotRelief.org has many ways to get involved.) Yes, by all means pray and intercede on their behalf. But then let them know that you are there when they need something.
We have 14 J6ers from right here in Oklahoma. Some have made it through the process and are out on the other side to whatever new life they can piece together; some are about to be sentenced; some just got picked up this summer. All could use love and support.
So does this scare you? How can it not? What if they come after us for standing with the J6ers? But when has it ever been wrong to stand for justice and righteousness? When has it ever been wrong to be on God’s side? God calls us to do hard things, to be faithful. And He promises to be with us, to see us through the fire and flood. ‘So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” ‘ Heb 13:6