Charles Stile, Candy Woodall, Jo Ciavaglia, Kathryne Rubright, Dustin Racioppi, Jim Martin, Chris McKenna and Joseph Spector, USA TODAY NETWORK
Capitol Police told Pennsylvania Rep. Madeleine Dean to get on the ground, to put on a gas mask, and to get to a safe room.
Then they told her to take off her legislative pin.
Dean subscribes to the belief of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who used pins as a diplomatic tool. Dean typically wore two pins every day: her legislative pin and another, usually a gold bald eagle that her father gave to her mother.
She wore the bald eagle when she was sworn in to Congress in 2019. She wore it when she and other impeachment managers charged Trump.
But on Jan. 6, taking off her pin was a matter of safety. It identified her as a lawmaker, and lawmakers were at risk of violence.
“So that was a sad day when you think I have the honor of serving and I couldn’t wear that pin,” Dean said.
When she talks about Jan. 6, Dean sounds like a lawyer prosecuting a case. Then she recalls talking with her family during those frightening moments.
“I was on the phone with my family from the time they told us to put the gas masks on,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.
Dean paused as tears slid down her cheeks. “I feel bad," she said, "that I scared them so much.”
She didn’t feel safe at any point that day, not even when they were cleared to return to the ransacked House floor and vote to certify the presidential election. She passed shattered glass, splintered wood, feces smeared on the Capitol walls that Dean had always found “gorgeous” and “stately.”
But she felt duty-bound: They had a job to finish, she said. The Capitol for her became breathtaking in a different way.
“I don’t feel like it’s the same place,” she said nearly a year later. “It’s a hallowed place.”
Building security is different, too. She has to pass through a metal detector before each time she votes on the House floor.
“I’m aware every single day of my surroundings more than I ever have been,” she said. “What a sad state of affairs that we can’t go about our work and feel safe among ourselves.”
And there’s at least one self-imposed rule she's had since Jan. 6: She won’t co-lead a bill with anyone who voted not to certify election results.
The consequences of Jan. 6 are all around her, but Trump still needs to be held accountable for the violent attack, she said.
“That was planned. That was prepared for,” Dean said.
Lately, whenever she gets discouraged about the lack of accountability for Trump, she wears a pin in the shape of a starfish. It symbolizes a parable about a boy who tries to save starfish that have washed onto the beach. An older man says the boy can't make a difference because there are more starfish on the beach than he could ever save.
The boy throws one starfish back in the ocean and tells the man: He made a difference to that one.
“That’s the line of work we’re in. We’re saving starfish,” Dean said. “When I get really discouraged, I remember I helped somebody. I made a difference for one person today.”
###
See full article here.
