STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — As Americans mentally prepared themselves for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, just two weeks after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, images of a bleak-looking Washington, flooded screens across the country.
For most of those people, the option always remained to momentarily look away or turn off the news altogether. But a woman from Steamboat Springs wasn't afforded the same luxury, instead finding herself smack dab in the middle of all the action.
Libby Lukens, now a senior at George Washington University studying criminal justice and political science, returned from her winter break to a drastically different city. Rather than the pedestrian-filled National Mall she'd grown used to, heavy security lined the streets around the area.
"On my block, there’s a lot of military vehicles and some national guard," Lukens said. "I feel a bit more protected with them there. It’s very strange to see though."
As strange as it may be, Lukens said she's not all that worried about her safety citing "so much security around right now that I simply don't think anything bad can happen really."
"I really hope nothing bad happens," she quickly added after.
And so does her mom, Shannon Lukens.
"Knock on wood," she said.
Shannon said she questioned if it was safe to send her daughter back to school following the attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. Ultimately, she and her family decided it was.
"Just to be able to say she did it with all the national guard there, I feel pretty safe about it," Shannon said. "Plus, she has her Steamboat car. Her little Subaru."
That little Subaru, complete with Colorado license plates and Thule racks, remains packed and gassed up should Libby need to leave Washington in a hurry. Libby said she also heeded advice sent from her university in an e-mail to all students to prepare "as you would for a hurricane or a snowstorm that would prevent you from going outside for several days to grab food or order takeout."
"I have a lot of canned goods," Libby said. "I have a lot of food that, in case I need to, I can hunker down here for a while."
These are the kind of updates Libby and Shannon discuss on Steamboat Radio, of which Shannon is the news director. Though a professional journalist, Shannon remains a mom above all and begins the interviews with the most important question of whether Libby is safe.
"People want to know there’s a person from way up here in the corner of northwest Colorado who’s in Washington, three blocks from the White House," Shannon said.
Another aspect Libby said is different is the National Mall. Not just the fact that the usually pedestrian-filled area is now mostly empty, but even what's around it. She said there are electronic boards at bus stops that usually advertise different attractions in the city. Those now hold pictures of insurrectionists wanted by the FBI.
Though the nation's Capital looks different than the city Libby moved to begin her college career, she described being there now as an exciting time she wouldn't want to miss.
"I’m so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here, to witness this and to experience it so that I can tell people down the line this is what happened in our nation’s capital and I was there to witness it," Libby said.
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