Editorial: The Ripple Effect of Jon Schaffer being photographed at Capitol riot

by | Jan 7, 2021 | Editorials, News | 0 comments

 

You may have noticed; Metal Insider was relatively quiet yesterday. January 6th started as the day for Congress to meet in the Capitol building in Washington DC to confirm the 46th president of the United States, which is a democratic process we see every election. However, things drastically changed when President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol building, attacking law enforcement and creating chaos and destruction in hopes of overturning the election, which had already been called two months ago. These riots resulted in four deaths, over seventy arrests, a forced evacuation of the house and senate chambers, and an overall delay in affirming Joe Biden as the 46th President. 

These actions made America look like a third world country that’s never experienced democracy before. It’s domestic terrorism, which occurred just a few short hours after President Trump’s “Save America” rally. While this alone was difficult to digest and witness regardless of anyone’s political beliefs, a friend reached out to me about Iced Earth/Demons & Wizards guitarist Jon Schaffer last night. 

I didn’t want to believe what I saw. The shock and disappointment refrained me from writing about it. I was frozen. After recently praising the latest Demons & Wizards album, III, I couldn’t understand why Schaffer would participate in yesterday’s riots. Despite his questionable interviews in the past reported by Metal Injection, I wouldn’t expect Schaffer to participate in such a shameful display to the point of becoming a person of interest in unrest-related offenses made by Washington D.C police and federal investigators. To be clear, this is about Schaffer being part of the mob breaking into the Capitol. If the guitarist were standing outside, it’d be an entirely different story. 

Schaffer reacted without thinking about the consequences and those who will be affected by it. The ties he has in the metal community run deep. Outside of his fanbase, this leads to associations with Blind Guardian’s Hansi Kürsch, his bandmates, label, and the over thirty-five year legacy of Iced Earth. His music reputation has been damaged as hundreds of his fans remain enraged [look at Iced Earth’s Facebook page]. 

What good did this do? What did this achieve? We need to rise above the hate, chaos, and division this country is in, along with spreading false information. Falling into a rabbit hole of rage is not the answer. It only creates a ripple effect keeping the country’s strong divide. I wish we will find the answer to unify and put an end to letting deception, discrimination, and hate take over, no matter where your political beliefs stand.

 

Ozzy Osbourne summed this up perfectly earlier this morning with the below Facebook post:

 

 

 

You can see reactions on yesterday’s mob below: