In the hours after the shooting, downtown D.C. moved as if under glass. People went back to their desks, but no one really returned to normal; every helicopter shadow on the window blinds made hearts jump. The press conferences offered phrases polished to the point of emptiness, as if language itself had been quarantined. That void left space for something darker: the realization that proximity to power doesn’t equal protection, that uniforms and clearances and perimeters can’t fully hold back chaos.

What stayed was not just grief for the soldiers, but a quieter, more corrosive understanding. The Guard had stood where danger was supposed to be managed, not manifested. Their fall turned the city into a mirror, forcing the country to see how fragile its sense of order really is. We weren’t watching a distant battlefield; we were watching the story we tell ourselves about safety begin to crack.