Letter: We have had our fill of political violence
I am honestly relieved the assassination attempt failed. As a country we have had our fill of political violence, of all violence. Or perhaps not. Following this most recent event there was a call for, a promise of introspection.
That call for, that promise of a shift in our national incivility ended after about 15 minutes Thursday on a stage in Milwaukee.
The man who came within a fraction of an inch of a fatal gunshot while standing on a portable stage in Butler, Pennsylvania ... The man who immediately dropped to the safety of the floor of that stage upon being nicked in his right ear ... The man who exposed the many secret service agents to deadly gunfire while he raised his fist and, in a display of false bravado, chanted "Fight!, Fight!, Fight!" ... That man, after 15 minutes on that Milwaukee stage and in speeches made since, ended the call and obliterated the promise.
If only the dozens of young children killed in Sandy Hook and Uvalde had all only been nicked in the ear as he was. If only that man, who declared on that stage in Milwaukee that he believed God saved him that day, would have the wisdom and courage to lead a national effort to ban the gun used so easily and so quickly to murder those dozens of children and nearly himself.
There are many now who insist that man is brave because he wasn't killed. I suppose the children who died in Sandy Hook and Uvalde should have been more like him. Maybe that man's God would then have saved them, too.
I've been told our national motto is "In God We Trust".Â
Trust to do what? Save the worthy? Save the innocent? To inspire us to save each other? I don't see enough of that happening.
Mike King, Dakota