We at the abyss, again. Yesterday a 20-year-old kid tried to assassinate a presidential candidate. Ripped his ear. Killed an innocent person and critically injured two others.

That young American also traumatized his fellow Americans. All of us. Republicans. Democrats. Independents Centrists. Far Left Liberals. Far Right Conservatives. Religious people of all kinds. All genders. All races. All economic groups. We are all worse off due to his actions.

And we all must ask ourselves where we go from here.

Today, each of us are faced with a choice. Do we embrace sketchy conspiracy theories? Make political accusations? Retaliate? Jump further into Civil War?

All of that is possible.

The kid muddies the waters here by being a registered Republican who donated to a Democratic group. Harder to use him to accuse the party you oppose because of his confused political ties, as of now.

That actually might be a blessing for us all.

We have an opportunity to see this kid as a metaphor for Mixed Message America, where all of us are inundated with a constant flow of spin, accusation, indoctrination, and hate. Will we take this moment to finally rise above our baser instincts and find ways to move forward together? Or will we use it to further polarize our country? Will we be foolish enough to allow ourselves to sink into civil war?

I hope not.

But that hope needs help.

The next few days offer us a chance to reset our rhetoric, to lower the heat, to find our way back to the Idea of America.

I believe in the Idea of America. It is one of the many things I embrace and love about our country. I even wrote a novel, A Simple Rebellion, about how horrifying it will be if we forget how special America can be. I considered it a dark horror thriller, until Jan. 6 rendered my outlandish fiction too close to truth. That day forced me to rewrite it even darker so the Idea of America could shine through.

Yesterday made that book come true again.

Yesterday rendered my novel quaint. Outdated.

It will not be rewritten.

I need to look elsewhere for hope now.

We used to have “e pluribus unum” as our national motto. It means “From Many, One” and was on many official documents including our money. We need to find our way back to embracing that again, no matter what else we believe.

We need to embrace America again, both the stars and the stripes. The Founding Fathers meant for our differences to strengthen us, not tear us apart.

I will be watching intently over the next several days for a rekindling of the Idea of America. I hope and pray our better instincts take hold.

Sadly, what we are already seeing is the jackals showing their teeth.

I choose to hang onto the belief that there are more good Americans than those who choose hate.

But it is getting harder…