Dear Howard University Community,

“The further a society drifts from the truth the more it will hate those that speak it.” – George Orwell.

We are tremendously saddened and troubled by Wednesday’s assault on the U.S. Capitol building and literal assault on our democracy. Our immediate thoughts are consumed with anxiety for the security of our city and the welfare of the Howard students, faculty and staff members who are still studying and working in Washington, D.C. The University encourages everyone to abide by the district’s curfew laws and to stay home as much as possible. Please consider your safety before anything else.

Our remaining thoughts are plagued by the images of Wednesday’s assailants and what their actions might portend for the fate of the United States of America. In the strongest possible terms, we condemn the violent takeover of our hallowed halls of government; we denounce those who participated in, as well as those who instigated, these acts. It is our sincere hope that these events act as an X-ray that reveal our country’s fractures and ailments and guide us toward better days as a nation. But there can be no erasing the horrors of what transpired on Jan. 6, 2021, the day our democracy was breached again. Because, truth be told, our democracy is breached daily when we are subject to xenophobia, racism and discrimination.

The fact that scores of Republican members of Congress and seven senators chose to persist with an attempt to overturn a vote of the people after blood was shed and the sitting president offered no salve with his words or directions means that we have an America with leaders that have fallen short. Let’s be clear: This was not a stand on principle, because the foundation of principle is truth, and the embodiment of principle is character. Neither were on display Wednesday by the men and women who perpetrated the unfounded objection to the Electoral College vote.

Our ability to move forward as a country depends less on our government’s foundations, institutions and norms and more on individual actions – those of everyday Americans as well as those in the seats of power. We should never, and cannot now, fool ourselves into thinking that our democracy is secure. It is, and always has been, vulnerable. Our future is subject, not to the words written in our laws, but to the whims of the people who decide whether or not to follow the rule of law.

First, leaders across all strata of society must beholden themselves to the pursuit of truth, if not truth itself. They must act in accordance, not to facts as they wish them to be, but to the truth as it is or, at least, as it appears to be. While truth is essential, we must realize that it is also imperfect. As more facts are revealed, as more knowledge is discovered, the truth as we see it may change. We cannot be so wedded to a certain perception of the truth that we are unwilling to relinquish it as new information emerges.

In our efforts to elevate the truth, we must also make an important distinction: There are those who lie, and there are those who are lied to. Wednesday’s assailants fall into both categories. The falsehoods they believe have no basis in fact or reality. They have been examined and explored only to be unanimously debunked and dismissed by a cross-section of individuals, courts of law, legislative bodies and elected officials with contrasting priorities and ideological viewpoints.

There can be no adjudicating the morality of Wednesday’s events. The insurrectionists were wrong, not only because of their beliefs, which were blatantly false, but also because of their criminal deeds, which have done real damage to our democratic principles and traditions. Let us unequivocally denounce their actions and begin to repair the injury caused by Wednesday’s calamitous events. In the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “No lie can live forever, ‘truth crushed to the ground will rise again.’”

Excellence in Truth and Service,

Howard University