The "dumpster fire" as you say, was one of the most profoundly American moments we've had in our nation's modern history. Please don't conflate the subsequent media and even our own side's perversions of it with what actually took place.
We were there to show the normies and doomers that there are, indeed, millions who love our nation, that they are not alone, and that they/we are the majority, not the fringe.
We were there because it was our congress critters' last chance at doing the right thing and we wanted to galvanize them, strengthen their backbones. Specifically, that is what President Trump asked us to do. That they chose to swallow their hearts and be "men without chests", as CS Lewis puts it, is on them, sadly. That is why Trump asked us to go home. We did our job. They did not do theirs.
We were there to remind each other of who we are: The best Americans. Americans who will drive clear across the country to stand up for what is right, who can stand a million strong while filled with righteous fury and yet still retain the soul and morals of an individual and not deteriorate into a mindless beast of a mob.
And last, we were there to remind ourselves that this is a country worth saving.
Peace to you, Fren. Keep your chin up.
It's really scary to make that leap to homeschooling (or at least it was for me). I realize my post is rather unsympathetic to that, but please consider homeschooling if you are in all but the most conservative of small schools. We conservative teachers have been frantically saying for years that this day of brainwashed enthusiasm for socialism was coming to the American voting system. You have NO idea how pervasive the corruption is...the best teachers retired or moved to specialized programs with more latitude, the good ones still in the trenches have their hands well-tied, and the rest are either working tirelessly against your core beliefs or are too lazy to care.
Homeschooling can be a disaster...or it can be the making of brilliance and an extraordinary life. Love your kids, make their education a delight, don't recreate public school at home but rather look to many of the Founding Fathers for what a true classical education at home might consist of, teach them to teach themselves, and you will be ahead of the game from the start.
Two more cents'.
I wrote this based on my experience being there that day...i completely agree with you, OP:
We Were There
(Ghost March of the Founding Few)
When the clouds of gas came roiling
Down the steps through crowds encoiling,
And injustice fast embroiling,
(a veteran shot despite her empty hands)
When “LEAVE NOW!” shouts and sirens' blare
With Anthem mingled in the air,
And blue and white of sky and cloud were gashed with blood-red flare...
We were there.
When desperate plea uniting all
Of “Do Your Job!”, that clarion call
Was clapper struck on building wall,
(a liberty bell rung by 3 million hands)
When footfall crashed in waves, a mare
Of immigrants whose strident care
For freedom woke the sleeping who were blithely unaware...
We were there.
With millions strong of meek and bold,
Of black and white, of young and old,
Who, stalwart, stood in biting cold
(Their firebrand blood kept warm frostbitten hands)
Whilst cowards fled to lowly lair--
Afraid of those who stood in prayer,
And trembled in their tunnels at the People's righteous ayre...
We were there.
And did you see us, standing by
When Ashley took her final sigh?
And did you hear us, giving breath,
To the golden voice who faces death?
And did you feel us, holding ground,
When prayers drowned out your bullhorn's sound?
We Founding Fathers Few who gave our all?
We strode abreast—though still unseen—
With one man great of heart and mien,
Who unbowed, fought back, leonine.
(he stilled their readied storm with quieting hands)
While arrows volleyed, sins laid bare,
And false friends crowed, we showed him where
The light shone on your deeds and 30 silver pieces' fare...
We were there.
Good common folk all merely sought
Redress of broken oaths, and fought—
Not with their guns—but deed, word, thought!
(against guarded shirks with grubbing, too-soft hands)
Now can you feel our judging stare--
You mice who fled the People's dare,
Then crept back in to weight your paws upon the scale's tare?
We were there.
We made this hall, this ground you soil
With backroom deals and ill-got spoil,
With swallowed hearts and weakened moil.
(you spat on our graves and on their outreached hands)
Their voices fell on deafened ear
Tuned only to the fawning ware
Of bleating media crying wolf in every blast and blare...
We were there.
And did you see us, standing tall,
To break the blow of Ashley's fall?
And did you hear us, giving breath,
To the golden voice who faces death?
And did you feel us, holding ground,
When prayers drowned out your bullhorn's sound?
We Founding Fathers Few who gave our all?
And now those voices that you flee,
Who bravely sang both curse and plea,
Have called us up again to breathe.
(and conjured thus, we will wait with steady hands)
When soon you cry, “What Savage Heir,
Now hounds and haunts this timid hare,
And leaves it thrashing, panicked in its self-created snare?”
...You'll know that we were there.
And did you see us, standing fast,
When Ashley's heart gave up its last?
And did you hear us, giving breath,
To the golden voice who faces death?
And did you feel us, holding ground,
When prayers drowned out your bullhorn's sound?
We Founding Fathers Few who gave our all?
We Founding Fathers Few who gave our all!
-anonymous, copyright 2021, all rights reserved
Well...it's early days yet, don't you think? This was a protest that took place in the middle of the work week and was attended largely by working and business class folks. So many of us who were there in person were in the first few days after still traveling and/or playing catch up with our businesses and our daily lives while also trying to fight the monstrous media amid channel censorship to get the narrative righted of what really went on. So in that regard, yes; that energy was easily re-channeled _that day_in real time...why is this surprising?
But notice now how the narrative is starting to turn, as people talk to family and friends and share their own accounts and footage of what happened. The contrast of this with the appalling histrionics and whomping of civil liberties by the left and even our own chorusing the same from the right is starting to wake people up who were not believing just how bad it really has gotten.
For any who were there: NOW is the time to double down, take back the narrative. Share in person your pictures, your stories, and help people understand what is happening. There was an easily provable 1.5 million of us there...I think it may have been up to double that, myself, but it's hard to verify without good aerial photos. Get out there and right the misinformation.