The Midget's House Quotes

“It's strange, isn't it, how you never know you're living the best time of your life at the moment you're living it? If you could appreciate, at that instant, that this is it, maybe you'd make certain your mind imprinted every detail of the sights, smells, sounds and sensations.
Then again, maybe knowing that life will only get duller, sadder, less hopeful afterward would inject melancholy into that moment. You'd miss life's peak experience by mourning it before it passes.
So perhaps it's best not to know.”
― Anita Bartholomew, The Midget's House

“After Michael Fanone’s partner rushed him to the emergency room following his ordeal, Fanone was diagnosed with a heart attack, a concussion, and a traumatic brain injury. Daniel Hodges’ wounds included a concussion and multiple contusions. Harry Dunn suffered emotional trauma that required extensive counseling. The psychological damage inflicted on officers who were forced to battle their fellow citizens at the Capitol might linger the longest and for some, hurt the most, even if it’s the least visible. Two officers who defended the Capitol committed suicide shortly afterwards. Numerous officers, traumatized by the events of January 6th, have left the force. It’s impossible to know how many who remain on the job still suffer from trauma’s after-effects.”
― Anita Bartholomew, Siege: An American Tragedy

“a call went out over the radio that a fellow officer had collapsed. That officer was Brian Sicknick. EMTs administered CPR on the floor of the Capitol building, but the hospital listed him in critical condition upon his arrival. He suffered two strokes in succession in the aftermath of fighting to save the Capitol. Officer Sicknick died the following day, January 7, 2021. He was 42 years old.”
― Anita Bartholomew, Siege: An American Tragedy

“Roseanne Boyland, 34, had never been much interested in politics, but she adored children, particularly her two nieces. She became convinced that the QAnon conspiracy theories were real, especially one that claimed that children were being trafficked in furniture shipped by the online retailer Wayfair. Somehow, that led her to seeing Trump as a savior of endangered children, and from there, it was easy to believe that she had to go to Washington, DC, to help stop the steal and thereby save the children from pedophiles. It didn’t help that Boyland suffered from substance abuse and that pandemic restrictions on gatherings had cut her off from her AA meetings.”
― Anita Bartholomew, Siege: An American Tragedy

“streamed into a narrow hallway with the rest of the mob, intent on making their way to the Senate. But cops in riot gear blocked the end of the passageway, preventing the tightly packed throng from advancing. Watkins admonished those in front of her in the hallway to “Push, push, push…Get in there. They can’t hold us!” She was wrong. They could hold the line, and they did. Police tossed tear gas into the crowd. The mob backed away. At just past three o’clock, the defeated Oath Keepers, including Watkins, retreated from the building.”
― Anita Bartholomew, Siege: An American Tragedy

“Watkins’ case is more evidence that society’s fixation on identity politics can miss the ways in which individual circumstances change the game. Watkins, together with her longtime boyfriend, was a bar owner in the tiny rural town of Woodstock, Ohio. This small business, that she’d had such high hopes for, had been struggling due to restrictions imposed by the state government to decrease the spread of Covid-19. She didn’t blame the virus. She blamed Republican Governor Mike DeWine, the man who declared an emergency in March 2020 in an attempt to contain the virus’s spread. DeWine’s order that closed bars and restaurants to indoor customers was lifted in late May 2020. But business still lagged. And during the idle hours imposed by the pandemic, Watkins developed a penchant for watching videos produced by the conspiracy site, InfoWars.”
― Anita Bartholomew, Siege: An American Tragedy

“Then again, maybe knowing that life will only get duller, sadder, less hopeful afterward would inject melancholy into that moment. You’d miss life’s peak experience by mourning it before it passes. So perhaps it’s best not to know.”
― Anita Bartholomew, The Midget's House

“It’s strange, isn’t it, how you never know you’re living the best time of your life at the moment you’re living it?”
― Anita Bartholomew, The Midget's House