The beeping began with the 2020 election denial, intensifying with the January 6, 2021 attack on the capitol. Though it has never ceased, it seemed muffled with the peaceful transition of leadership on inauguration day. But soon after the ceremonies and Biden-Harris departures, the new president joined the overflow crowd, and rather than just celebrating his return to the White House, he began to perpetuate his denial of defeat four years earlier. The beeping was clearly still there; the nation is moving forward seatbelt unbuckled.

And then with his subsequent comments (“those who investigated the problem (or sought to get the seatbelt fastened) are thugs who should be jailed”) and his actions (pardon and release from prison for those who had been lawfully convicted of unlawful violence on Jan. 6, 2021), the beep’s rapidly increasing decibels and repetitions have become unnerving. And they will not go away until we as a nation “buckle-up”.

The 2024 election was decisive and I do believe the new administration has positive things to offer. But I also fear we are headed for crashes with fateful ejections, unless the president’s party comes clean about the 2020 denial and refuses to allow acquiescence to his denials to be the litmus test for loyalty. A government built around a lie about what is so foundational to our democracy will be neither safe nor successful. “Honesty guides the upright; dishonesty destroys the devious” Proverbs 11:3.

Bill Heersink

South Ogden