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Federal Market Intelligence for Small Business |
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Column: A Letter to our Subscribersby Tom Johnson, publisher of Set-Aside AlertJanuary 12, 2021 To our subscribers, Usually we publish an informational column on this page. Today I am publishing a personal letter to you, the subscribers of Set-Aside Alert. The events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 are so unprecedented and so profoundly troubling that I wanted to give you my personal view of what happened and what comes next. I arrived in Washington DC some decades ago as a young Lieutenant, assigned to Army Materiel Command to monitor improvements to transport helicopters. Washington is a fascinating town, and I stayed, raised my family in DC and began consulting to government contractors. There have been 13 inaugurations since my arrival. There have been numerous protest marches – from the anti-war protests of the late 60s through to the Womens Marches and beyond. Some I’ve observed from afar and many I have participated in myself, at Freedom Plaza and the National Mall and on the west front lawn of the Capitol Building. Wednesday’s protest was small compared to most, but assuredly the most violent I have ever observed, filled with vehemence and vitriol, weapons and unpatriotic behavior, swagger and shamelessness. The organizers’ goal was to obstruct the legislature of the United States, elected by the people and seated in the Capitol building in the process of conducting the nation’s business. And it was not routine business by any description. It was the certification of an election--the heart of our democracy. Lawmakers in the U.S. Capitol were certifying the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election in which 81 million Americans chose Joe Biden as our next president. Despite much rhetoric, there has been no evidence to contradict that outcome. The mob showed no respect for our elected leaders, for our institutions and buildings, or for our democracy, no patriotism to our country, and total disdain for the government that serves them and all of the people, citizens and noncitizens, young and old, male and female. However, they failed to stop legislative debate and voting. Going forward, I worry about the safety of our elected House and Senate members, their staffs, and all those who work inside the U.S. Capitol and the official Capitol complex. I also worry about the managers and employees of the many small business federal contractors who serve the government and provide goods and services to agencies, not just here but across the country. Probably every building along Pennsylvania Avenue, from the White House to the Capitol, has contractors serving as security, housekeeping, systems design and programming, network management, editorial, medical and many other functions. Those people are now suddenly at risk simply for doing their jobs. And similarly, every federal and state government building across the country and around the world must now respond to new threats, as though we were at war. I served while we were at war in Viet Nam. Twenty-plus years later I was down on Pennsylvania Avenue watching the parade welcoming our troops home after Desert Storm. Believe me, I have never been as concerned about the safety of our federal workers, our military and our contracting community from foreign forces as I am now from our internal domestic terrorists. It is up to all of us to take a breath, reassess what we can do individually and corporately, and take action to recommit to non-violent collaboration and compromise to move our country forward.
Tom Johnson
Set-Aside Alert has been publishing news and information focused exclusively on the Small Business Federal Contracting Community since 1991. Publisher Tom Johnson may be contacted at tjohnson@setasidealert.com.
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