AOC’s Emotional Monologue
you won't want to miss this
AOC.
What's your first reaction when you see the initials of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
Last night I started seeing a couple of Tweets that she was doing a live stream on Instagram.
"Tune in now!" said one.
"AOC is getting real," said another.
By 9:30 a.m., I was one of 2.5m viewers to watch last night’s video.
A media headline boiled it down to: "AOC admits she had been a victim of sexual assault."
Oh, that prurient headline was just one sliver of the story she told. Sex is clickbait in the never-ending quest for eyeballs. AOC mentioned it in reporting about her experience of being hunted down during the Capitol attack. She revealed the previous sexual assault to explain how the ramifications of these attacks are ongoing and deeply rooted.
But what she told us about the days leading up to the attack on the Capitol is haunting. Minute by minute, pound upon pound on the door where she hid, not knowing who she could trust, and realizing if found, she could die.
She disclosed her earlier sexual assault to explain the impact of trauma upon trauma, and when a perpetrator goes unpunished, it compounds the emotional impact even further.
Had the congress members who incited the mob expressed any remorse, AOC might not have taken to Instagram last night.
Instead, the GOP talking points seem to be 'let's move on for the sake of unity.'
Fox News talking heads call AOC a bartender as if that's the lowest career on the planet. They omit she graduated cum laude from Boston University with a double-major in international relations and economics.
When AOC was first elected, I will confess I wished she hadn't ousted an incumbent. I was wrong.
AOC is of a generation who understands the ramifications of inaction on climate change will impact their generation and beyond. Incremental changes passed to mollify campaign contributors won't save the planet. She innately understands how to go directly to an audience with authenticity through unscripted conversations via Instagram. Her earlier videos discuss a typical day in congress while she's at home chopping veggies for her Instapot meal.
Her willingness to be open and vulnerable with 2.5 million people about her experience wasn't because she is a 'media whore' (we've certainly seen enough of that these past four years).
She used her platform to speak on behalf of untold victims. A violent attack, at whatever point of life endured, does not fade from memory.
I have a dear friend who just last week wrote an essay about what it was like to take her attacker to court, only to be admonished by the judge who didn't want to see 'either of them' in his courtroom again. The rage from the berating lives on 50 years later.
I have had the honor of working with many in intimate settings where conversations can go deep. Their memories do not disappear with time. Quite the contrary, stories left untold and unprocessed can be invisible marionette strings pulling them at work and home.
Thankfully, I have not had this experience personally. But could have.
I was 35, in Kansas City for a seminar. It was late at night when I approached my minivan in a dark parking lot and felt a strange sensation. The feeling heightened my awareness. Yards away, I noticed something moving in the back seat.
I turned around, walked quickly back inside, and called the police.
A stranger with a knife was in my car, still waiting for me when the police arrived.
The prosecutor begged me to return to Kansas City from Des Moines for his trial. Without my testimony, he would be set free. I was scared, and it wasn't easy or inexpensive for me to appear, but I did.
Maybe I kept someone else from being attacked as a result. I hope so.
And that's what AOC did in her brave, rambling, emotional address last night. She put everyone involved on notice that if they were complicit in the events leading up to the attack on our democracy, there would be consequences.
Senator Ted Cruz. Senator Josh Hawley. Senator Lindsey Graham. Rep. Mo Brooks. Rep. Lauren Boebert. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Rep. Matt Gaetz. (click on their names for more stories about their alleged participation) And anyone involved in the attack on democracy and the murders that took place on January 6: The truth will come out.
It would be best to face the consequences in a court of law and public opinion.
We cannot. Will not. Must not, move on.
Or it will happen again.
I admit that AOC has been more outspoken than I am sometimes comfortable with. However, perhaps that is what we need more of. We have become so complacent on so many topics. Thanks so much for sharing this.
Thank you, Julie. I read and I listened. Yes, I was abused when I worked at the Iowa Dept. of Public Health as a man presses his body against mine. No raping but he was speaking. I reported it and the entire Capitol Hill went to classes. I found 4 other women he had attacked and got information out to all women in our dept. and reported him to Personnel. We had great classes but that was in 1985 or so and I do not think the State Government kept them up. Jan. 6 was a terrible day. I watched it all. At first they said someone had been killed and I did not know who. I saw the Governor wanting to send the National Guard and not getting approval. I saw them break in and beating cops. It was one of the worse days in the USA's history. Thank you for the column and thank you for sharing the video.