Dr. Brij Bhambi is a cardiologist and one of the physician owners of Bakersfield Heart Hospital as well as an owner and director at Centric Health. He is a regular guest on The Richard Beene Show, which airs weekday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on KERN NewsTalk 96.1 FM/1180 AM. He appears Fridays at 2 p.m. What follows are his thoughts on the attack on the U.S. Capitol, American society and American exceptionalism.
"I have been raised in double speak of third world politics. Flag and religion are the usual failsafe drapes that hide ugliness in the guise of populism. Corrupt agendas are adorned in digestible slogans. Divisions are created. Divisions are exploited. A few win. All else lose. Always!
Never occurred to me that wheel could come a full circle in a place that birthed modern democracy.
Democracy is founded on the sacred covenant that outcomes have to be accepted. Allegations repeated and amplified don’t erase reality that actually transpired. Hugo Chavez may have risen from dead to reprogram Dominion voting machines to the benefit of Biden.
And yet be dumb enough to recklessly let down ballot vote go unchanged. Either way he left no crumbs. None that any election officer, any court of law, all the way to SCOTUS could find. Remember SCOTUS was purposefully packed to find the crumbs, when none existed. Third branch of government redeemed itself by just not lowering itself into gutter. Courage in any incarnation is worthy of applause. Thank you SCOTUS.
At personal level, I have been awed by a lot of things. Three memories figure prominently.
A visit to Nagasaki is a spiritual exercise. It grabs your soul, wrenches your guts and compels kindness as human-speak. Devastation begs not to be repeated. Sombre.
A visit to Vatican is divine. The beat that sustains your heart feels a different flutter there. Sublime.
A visit to Oval Office... speechless! That little real estate is sacred. Thats where Right is Might has been practiced. Like life, it's a work in progress. Yet it symbolizes the best in pursuit of human endeavors. Awe inspiring and humbling.
I have not had an occasion to visit Capitol Hill yet. I intend to. The desecration of Jan 6th, 2021 has accelerated that impulse.
The spectacle of violent assault on Capitol Hill was a repulsive actualization of vitriolic rhetoric. A rhetoric built on manufactured grievances and considered lies. Lies repeated and amplified in echo chambers of the faithful. Faithful to a false prophet.
The crescendo was carefully choreographed to deliver the democratic republic a decapitation strike.
To witness dystopian events of January 6, 2021, unfold at the sanctum sanctorum of the birth place of modern democracy convulsed mind and singed soul. The nation that cultivated the notion of “government of the people, by the people for the people” witnessed a disfigured interpretation. Government of the people incited insurrection against government for the people to perpetuate a corrupt regime through deception and intimidation.
Faithfuls were misled in to embracing the conspiratorial and contrived myths, to the ill of the country.
For years, naked greed, narcissistic self aggrandization, nepotism, authoritarian tendencies, flood of lies and sophisticated marketing of snake oil succeeded in building a large constituency of the committed believers. That, Trump would sell these believers for profit, was obvious.
Trump equalled a historical precedence of losing big, AFTER first term AND taking down both houses with him.
As the flame flickered, it laid bare the core of Ttrumpism. There was no soul. Never was. Only swamp. And selfishness.
In due time, shock will wear off. Politicians will go back to political dealings. Jan 6, 2021 will remain the abyss. A routine day that had ceremonial duty of electoral vote count was denied rendezvous with destiny. No destiny, it joined Pearl Harbor to live in ignominy.
“Remember the day”, outgoing president tweeted; to adorn the proceedings of an inglorious day.
Injury to insult.
The democracy was shaken not stolen. Republic stood unsteady. Resiliency endures. Sanctity will be restored.
Let's rebuild decency as the foundation to politics. Let's rebuild camaraderie as foundation to governance. Let compromise be the bridge. Let love be the strength.
Whats good for goose is good for the gander. Access to equality is foundational. Jan 6th was not our finest moment. Let's not respond in kind but with kindness. Let's unclench the fist and reach out with an open hand.
We don’t need to regress to trial by combat. Aaron Burr won a version of that. Nation lost Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr walked a dead man’s walk to his final death.
Pathetic ambition seeking furtherance on the ruins of decency and democracy is un-American to the core. At the end, when we do inventory of life, it's the good deeds we did, comfort us the most. America I came to had an inner beauty, an exalted message, a propulsive energy that encouraged the best in a person. That America is eternal. The carnage in Capitol Hill, the desecration of sanctum sanctorum is not demolition of American dream. Its an opportunity to write the next chapter. We need a time out from hate. We need to make time for love. We need to listen. We need to be humble. We vote once every two years but we live every moment. We need to regain equilibrium.
The Jeffersonian prophecy prevailed. The temple was bloodied by the reviled. Instigator got away.
A few can’t win at the expense of all else this time.
This time let “all else” change the paradigm.
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