Teaching the facts of Jan. 6 should be every state's assignment - The Boston Globe

Re “Va. passes bill on Jan. 6 in schools: Forbids teaching that insurrection was peaceful” (Page A6, March 10): Donna Phillips, president and CEO of the Center for Civic Education, thinks teachers should educate students without pushing a certain point of view. Valid counsel indeed. But the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is well-documented historical fact that the world watched unfold in horror on national television. Point of view can be presented. History should be taught.

The plaque honoring the officers who defended the Capitol and our democracy that day, which was voted into law by Congress in 2022, has only just been installed, quietly, at 4 a.m. on March 7 after having been held up by President Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and other complicit members of the GOP who have tried to rewrite history. Even now, it has not been placed where required by the law, nor does it include the names of the responding officers, as the original statute requires.

Meanwhile, Trump granted clemency to more than 1,500 rioters and continues, along with his cronies, to lie about what happened on Jan. 6.

All states, including Massachusetts, should move, as Virginia has done, to protect the teaching of this history. This is not, as Republicans argue, state-sponsored mind control but rather the safeguarding of history, fact, and truth.

Kathy Simolaris

Wilbraham