Ashley Elizabeth Miller

People love sharing words of wisdom this time of year. I am not going to be one of them. Instead, I am here to shed light on glossed-over insight from guards of our nation’s palaces of power: the U.S. Capitol and the White House.

Let’s start with Michael Fanone: a 44-year-old former D.C. police officer with bulging biceps and a salt-and-pepper beard who was one of the 140 security officers injured on Jan. 6 four years ago. After being beaten bloody, Fanone was shocked in the neck four times with a stun gun — causing him to have a heart attack. As he lay almost lifeless, the crowd shouted around his body: “Kill him with his own gun!”

Fanone, who voted for Trump in 2016, was scarred by his time accosted by the mob. He went on to campaign for Biden this past year, speaking at events such as Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan last May— an event that attracted protestors from both sides of the aisle: Trump loyalists condemning the sentencing as a sham and celebrity foes like Robert De Niro who spoke before Fanone.

“We New Yorkers used to tolerate Trump when he was just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot,” De Niro fumed. “A two-time playboy lying his way into the tabloids pretending to be a spokesman for himself to fool the press into inflating his net worth — a clown.

“But this city is pretty accommodating. We make room for clowns,” continued De Niro, who surmised: while outrageous liars loom large in New York City they should have no place in the country’s highest office.

On the other side of the sidewalk, Trump’s speaker lineup was full of well-known faces: Matt Gaetz, a Florida assemblyman who made his name ousting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and more recently paying a 17-year-old girl for sex; Douglas Burgum, the governor of North Dakota and a computer science businessman; Elise Stefanik, the fiery Assemblywoman from upstate New York who yelled questions about genocide at Ivy League presidents amid campus protests last spring; and my favorite — Mike Johnson, the clean-cut Christian and Speaker of the House from Louisiana (one of the poorest states in the country).

But I’m not here to talk about them. This is an essay about inspiration, about moving forward in the face of fear — something Fanone has had to do. As a former conservative police officer in D.C. he had to say goodbye to his old life protecting America’s Capitol and move on to a new one: campaigning against Trump. And his family has surely paid the price.

In my mind, Fanone should have spoken before De Niro. In fact, if Democrats had wanted to win, he should have been used more on the campaign trail — less Liz Cheyney, more officers injured on Jan. 6. Alas, Democrats are stuck in the past. It frustrates me.

New Year’s Advice From A White House Security Guard

In the first New Yorker out after Nov. 5, Sarah Larson recounts a post-Trump tour through the White House this fall in which sad Americans wept their way through the white marble walls.

Seeing their sadness, a security guard offered words of solace:

“It’s four years,” he said. “Do something positive for someone else every day. Mentor a young person. Do good work. Be involved in your community. That makes a difference.”

I plan to keep his words with me next year and hope you do too.