When I was a kid, the only capitol I had been to was in Austin on school field trips. The one that housed our nation’s lawmakers was an icon I’d only seen in photos. I remember a story in the Austin American-Statesman proudly declaring that the Texas State Capitol was taller than the one in Washington, D.C. It was a whole spread comparing both buildings—almost suggesting to readers, tongue-in-cheek, that our Capitol could stand next to America’s if it seceded from the Union.
On January 6, 2021, I found myself not only inside the U.S. Capitol for the first time, but running away from angry insurrectionists that had just broken through windows and doors to try to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
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