Shots were fired on a baseball practice yesterday. Many were injured, some critically. They were politicians, elected officials, those who work in Washington, DC. And the shooter reportedly hated them, believed they and Trump are ruining the county.
It seems he hated them because of all the hyperbole being fed into he American consciousness seemingly from all sides these days.
“Trump may have obstructed justice.”
“Comey is a cowardly leaker.”
“The Senate is trying to quietly pass a bill that will hurt millions of Americans.”
“Democrats are coming for your guns.”
“Obama is going to install himself as your overlord.”
“Trump wants to be king.”
“Republicans are evil.”
“Democrats are the devil.”
All leading to the sounds of steady gunfire played on a loop on news stations across the nation.
Can we agree now, finally, that it has all gone too far?
Can we agree now, with public servants laying in a hospital beds, that this American Experiment does not succeed if the two sides refuse to work together, instead choosing to vilify the opposition withevery soundbyte?
Correction, at least four sides: Liberal, Democrat, Republican, Conservative. Well, if we are being fair, we must also add the lobbyists, special interests, Wall Street, public funding advocates, military industrial complex, numerous religious interests, big business, big pharma, Woke Americans, among others.
And broadcasting all of it, the 24 hour news cycle, an insatiable beast that can be used by the frail minded to hypnotize themselves into taking such horrible tragic actions.
It is time for us, all of us, to embrace the inescapable obligation that we must all take responsibility for what we say and how we say it and we must adhere to the truth, not the spin, not alternative facts, and we must believe enough in ourselves that we can serve the public and the national interest with that truth.
If we fail to do this, we fail America, and we doom ourselves.
Anyone who uses this incident to further a political agenda exposes himself or herself as a perpetrator of the kind of poison that created this madness in the first place. And I fear that some in Washington are already lining up to do exactly that. Sad.
As we pray for the injured and their families, let us also pray for this country to come together, finally, after all the insanity of recent times, and find a way back to some semblance of our former glory.
chrisryanwrites 