Broken Friendships: A Consequence In The Times of Trump
Can we maintain our values and certain types of friendships?
Exhausted, sitting in the exit row and waiting for my flight from DC to Chicago to take off, three days after January 6th, I remember finally taking a minute to take in the events of that day. January 6, 2021, was my third day on the job as a freshman member of Congress and in any year, the first week would have been like drinking from a firehose, but throw in an insurrection and lordy, lordy, there is no time for reflection at all with that type of havoc, you are literally operating on fumes and sheer will.
As I sat there on the plane, I finally began to appreciate my family’s terror on that awful day. All of the incredibly kind close friends, relatives, neighbors and colleagues who reached out during that 24 period to check on me, flooded back over me. Between calls, texts, DMs and emails, I received hundreds of inquiries and well wishes that day with folks expressing their concern. It finally hit me, and I began to cry. I hadn’t really absorbed the events of that day yet. I looked b…
