What I am is a patriot who cares deeply about his country and who'd never attended a rally or protest before. Going to Washington DC to stand in a crowd of other Trump supporters near the Washington Monument and then strolling with them to stand in front of the Capitol Building was the most defiant thing I have ever done. I wasn't armed and I did not go anywhere near the inside of the Capitol. I didn't even chant that loudly when other people took up the 'USA! USA!' chant. (I don't even like to sing all that loudly in church when we sing hymns.) I simply wanted to add my presence to the tens of other thousands of people who were there. I wanted to express my frustration with the situation regarding the widespread election fraud and the unfair political fight which has been waged against our president since before he was even inaugurated. I wanted to express my very great concern for the great tumult I can see coming. The expense and time involved cost me a great deal of personal difficulty but just simply being there was a very important political act for me.

I wish you could have seen us. We were a sight to see. I wish I felt like it was safe to share some of the pictures I took of the crowd but I don't feel like it would be a good idea in this environment where people can lose their jobs of even their lives simply for having the wrong opinion. I can tell you that I met a lot of people from all over the place. There were immigrants from China marching with us, asking people to sign petitions and doing. anything they could to warn us about the path towards an authoritarian future our country is taking, There was a lady from New Mexico who had come because she felt as scared and compelled to do it. There were people from Ohio who needed to get back to Union Station before the buses they had chartered were supposed to leave by 4:00. There were black people and brown people and white people. Flags and banners were streaming everywhere.

I got to the Capitol early because I was at the back of the crowd at the Washington Monument and when we headed over to the Capitol Building I was near the front of it because things got reversed, I was near the Capitol Building when the first barricades fell. But there was no mad rush up the stairs, no peasants storming the palace gates. I watched the people doing it just kind of hang around on the steps for over can hour as more and more people came down the street to join us. Some of them joined the people on the stairs and I saw a crowd of people loitering on the portico. I didn't see anybody go in and I don't know anything about what happened when they did other than what you will have already heard elsewhere. I left when I heard from a friend via text message that those things had started to happen. It took me quite a while to find a cab to take me where I needed to go and I listened in real time as the CNN reporters turned us all into monsters on his radio. The city streets were being closed and I won't tell you any more about where I went after that.

But I promise you all -- the vast, overwhelming majority of the people who were there were like me. We were relaxed and good-natured and good-spirited and we meant no harm to our country or any living person. But I can only imagine how much further the so-called elite will push us before more and more people on our side begin to push back harder than yesterday at the Capitol Building.