Family Therapy

 You may be under the impression that your relationship with your parents is complicated. As for myself, I feel pretty comfortable with the way things turned out between my mom and dad and I. We certainly had our moments, but ultimately we found our common family ground and stood together. We were united in the process of becoming a stronger unit even when things drifted afield. A divorce didn't help things much, but I am pleased and happy to say that when they departed this earth, there was not a lot of hanging threads. Not a bunch of "I wish I could have said." 

We talked a lot, my parents and I. 

It did not take a subpoena to get me to sit down and discuss my feelings. Such was not the case for young A.J. Mock of Minnesota who was called to the witness stand by his dad, Brian, in the matter of the elder's involvement at the fracas that took place outside and in our Nation's Capitol. Brian was charged with civil disorder, assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, and theft of government property.  You might imagine that the father would call upon his son as a character reference. Someone to stand up for dear old dad and tell the jury that surely they must be mistaken. Not my dad. 

A.J. Mock is one of several tipsters who informed the FBI about his father's alleged involvement in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. His dad had told him before he left that he "might not be coming back." Once it became apparent through an exchange of texts that the pater familias was in fact still alive, A.J. opened up to his father, the fugitive: "What you guys did today was treason and a homeland security threat ... Everyone there should be locked up for the rest of their lives, including you."

In the courtroom, things took another spin when the government decided not to call A.J., leaving open the opportunity for dad to put his son on the stand and cross-examine him. The two agreed that their relationship isn't as good as it could be, kind of a "love-hate relationship," and A.J. didn't want to see his dad sent to prison after all. 

More than a thousand arrests have been made from the mob on that eventful day, with still more trials to come. 

And a lot more family therapy.