Coup in Niger reminds Harford County resident of January 6 incident in Washington

I read your article on Hamed Diallo’s family vacation to Niamey, Niger, that was spoiled by a coup in that nation (”How a coup capsized Hamed Diallo’s family vacation, forcing the Havre de Grace soccer star to miss the start of the season,” Oct. 26).

This young soccer standout from Havre De Grace High School shows us how immigration invigorates and elevates America, and how and why vilification of new arrivals to this country is an exercise in prejudice and pettiness that keeps people like Hamed Diallo out, to the detriment of America.

At the end of your article, Diallo says of the coup in Niger that kept his own nuclear family on pins and needles during a recent visit to extended family there, “It is eye opening to know that these types of things [coups] are going on in the world and a lot of people here are oblivious to it.” He goes on to say, “I think the ultimate lesson I learned is that life is often taken for granted. Like just be thankful for whatever you have no matter what.” I agree.

But lest we forget, on Jan. 6, 2021, America suffered a near coup, in the form of an insurrection that happened within the Capitol building, an alternate slate of electors already picked out as part of a conspiracy to defeat the lawfully chosen president, Joe Biden.

Lest we forget that near coup was engineered by Donald Trump, our previous president who was unwilling to pass the baton to Joe Biden, but instead wanted to remain in power with the help of his Department of Justice and a handful of lawyers who interpreted the Constitution for him as he wanted to see it rewritten, not as it was actually written.

Many Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence, foiled Mr. Trump’s elaborate scheme, as did our military by refusing to participate in this dreadful incident. But Donald Trump’s foot soldiers, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and all the rest of his mesmerized, unthinking followers, attacked the Capitol anyway, defacing the building and hunting for Mr. Pence and members of Congress, with ferocity and furor, lest we forget.

Trump’s slogan was a short, sweet and catchy lie: Stop the Steal. It was a jingle that captivated a segment of America that still believes their patron saint, Trump, won in 2020 though such patron saints are more compatible with authoritarianism than with democracy.

To Hamed Diallo and his family I say, coups and political turmoil happen not just in Niger, but one such coup was attempted in the USA in 2021, and it reverberates, right now, across America and could be replayed if we are not vigilant.

Niger’s ousted president Mohamed Bazoum remains under house arrest. Niger’s constitution was suspended by the military and Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, unelected, has declared to the people of Niger that he’s in charge.

Lest we forget, that is what Donald Trump wanted to do, right here, allowing people to scream at his rallies, “Lock her up!” enthusiastically about Hillary Clinton, while his very first National Security adviser, Michael Flynn, joined in the chorus.

Donald Trump has shown us who he is. Like Niger’s men of the military who have put Bazoum — who was properly elected — in prison, Donald Trump has told us he thinks it’s perfectly all right to throw his opponents in prison. He is amused and agreeable when his followers think it’s fun to chant a slogan that says so.

But there are many still under the thrall of Donald Trump. When it comes to the precariousness of democracies across the world, I wish I could say with confidence, “Thank God, I don’t live in Niamey, Niger. Thank God I live in America.”

But I know that after Jan. 6, even a seasoned democracy such as America is only as good as the people at the top being moral beacons, not merely yes men and women scared of incurring the wrath of a demagogue and a liar; only as good as a man such as that having no followers whatsoever.

Usha Nellore

Bel Air