Preserve true history of January 6 Capitol insurrection

The decision to remove the database of cases related to the January 6 insurrection is deeply concerning and a blatant attempt to erase this dark chapter from our nation's history. This stands in stark contrast to the Justice Department's recent thorough investigation into the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, lauded as breaking the government's silence on that horrific event. Deleting the Capitol riot case database undermines efforts to fully understand the complexities and individual stories behind January 6. As evidenced by the countless videos, there was a wide range of motivations and actions on display that day – from those viciously attacking police to others decrying the violence. A comprehensive historical record is crucial to allocating accountability fairly. This erasure of January 6 parallels the tactics of autocratic regimes seeking to whitewash or memory-hole inconvenient histories. It is part of a broader push to rewrite American history by threatening to defund schools that teach our nation's racist past. Preservation of the full, unvarnished truth is essential for learning from our mistakes. Attempting to cast January 6 into the fog of confusion and forgetting does a disservice to the public's right to know what happened. I urge you to take a stand against these alarming efforts to distort the historical record and hide the realities of this assault on American democracy. We must reckon honestly with January 6 and its complex legacies, not sweep it under the rug.