Scott Powers
Like many of his colleagues in recent days, Democratic Rep. Darren Soto has detailed his experiences from the Jan. 6 insurrection of the U.S. Capitol, with a personal account of confusion, fear, relief, rejoice, blame, mistrust, resolve — and hunger.
Unlike colleagues, Soto, a singer-songwriter-lawyer from Kissimmee, put his story into verse. He read aloud his nearly 1,000-word poem, “A Bird’s Eye View to Insurrection,” Thursday night from the House floor.
Soto’s poem explores a range of observations and emotions not widely reported elsewhere, such as how the partisan divide became something much darker, as members of Congress mixed in safe rooms with uncertainty, charged with “Guilt, blame, excuses and outrage.”
The poem opens with a description of how the “humdrum noises of a mundane process” gave way, around 2:15 p.m. that day, to phone text messages that the Capitol had been breached.
He describes a confused scene, from his view in the gallery, as Vice President Mike Pence, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy were escorted out, followed by a full evacuation of everyone else in the floor level.
There was no evacuation at that point of those the gallery in the balcony level. He mentions a few of those with him, Reps. Jim Costa, Jason Crow, Rosa DeLauro, Jimmy Gomez, James Himes, Hank Johnson, Bennie Thompson, Peter Welch, and Susan Wild.
“We dozen or so remain in the gallery, stranded,” Soto’s poem says.
“Banging, banging, banging on the doors.
“The insurrections are at the chamber, gas masks are deployed, and we are surrounded.
“Welch, Gomez, Crow, DeLauro, Himes, Costa, Thompson, Wild, Johnson, and I
“Together we flee — over chairs, under railings, to the door.
“We are trapped.
“Bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang, bang! Get down! The orders rang!
“Guns, flash bombs, tear gas?
“Which sounds these are, I do not know, as Capitol Police stand as Sentinels to protect us.
“Get down! Get down again! So we did.
“I lie flat, behind flimsy plastic seat coverings — no match for bullets, contemplating my mortality.
“I realize finally and truly in this moment I could die.
“Army rangers rise, we lawyers take cover, and old souls sit relaxed, waiting peacefully, perhaps for the inevitable
“I am cerebral and imagining.
“I do not even hear the gun shot, mortally wounding a terrorist, and the chamber finally defended with urgency”
There is, at last, an evacuation of the gallery. Soto and the others are led up and out a door, past insurrections laying on the floor at gunpoint, “as they look at us with killers’ eyes.
“Democracy and I may die, but not today.” Soto’s poem declares.
They go down into tunnels, and keep moving. Soto’s poem describes when he runs into Democratic Rep. Val Demings, his Orlando colleague, “and we rejoice.”
From there they are led up stairs and into a safe room, “and we congregate in herds like cattle.”
What he describes next is an uncomfortable assembly of both Democrats and Republicans that feels partly like a confrontation between warring sides.
“Partisan cliques form, realizations begin, and an awkward casualness attempts to take hold.
“Guilt, blame, excuses, and outrage begin to form.
“Because of course, we told you so.
“Of course, dangerous rhetoric turns to violence, as the seeds of despicable lies finally grow to insurrection
“I start to contemplate.
“I am hungry, I am thirsty, and I am suspicious of certain colleagues.”
Eventually Soto’s odyssey leads to his office. He and staff hunker in lockdown, watching the news, seeing “the mob in all its horror …. We are in disbelief.”
At last, he and other members of the House return to the chamber and complete their duty of counting votes and certifying the election of Joe Biden as President.
“West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming. Pence begins to conclude his remarks,” Soto’s poem continues.
“There is a slight mix of anger, disappointment, and resoluteness in his face.
“Pence fulfills his constitutional duty.
“Speaker Pelosi smiles slightly. She is graceful and marks the seriousness of the day’s events.
“A domestic terrorist plot has been foiled.
“I am alive, the Congress is alive, and thank the God Almighty, Democracy is alive.
“America must remember this day, learn from it, lest we repeat it”
