The Stakes Are Rising

 The assassination of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman is yet another signpost on the path of current events that points to something awful. Terrible. Horrible. Hortman and her husband were gunned down early last Saturday morning by a man posing as a policeman. This same madman had stopped at three other lawmakers' homes, shooting another legislator and his wife, John Hoffman and his wife who are both expected to survive their wounds. 

Into this mix we drop United States Senator Mike Lee, who thought he might take this opportunity to throw a little social media gasoline on the fire. Senator Mike from Utah posted a couple of different bits of what I can only assume he believed were "funny," using a picture of the assassin taken from security video and captioning one “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.” The other one referenced Minnesota Governor Mike Walz, “Nightmare on Waltz Street.” Senator Mike was acting on some initial impulse that had him suggesting that the killer was from the Left, and misspelling the governor's name in the second. Several days later, after being confronted by Minnesota's senator Tina Smith who was a friend of Melissa Hortman, did Lee delete his posts. 

Once again, we see just how wide and unhealthy the divide has grown between the Left and the Right. The killer, who was apprehended in a cornfield not far from his house, was working from a list left in his pretend police car of seventy other names of potential victims. Democrats. In another version of this story, things could have been much worse. 

Which brings me to the point: How much darker do things need to be before we turn ourselves back toward the light? The convicted felon who was probably still reveling in the birthday parade he sat through chose not to call Governor Walz, as protocol might suggest in times like these. "Why would I call him? I could call and say, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So I could be nice and call, but why waste time?" 

I am good at recognizing rhetorical questions, but I think this bears an answer: Because you are the leader of a country called the United States. In times of crisis, we reach out to remind ourselves that as difficult as things get we are all in this together. Like when somebody was shooting at the Republican candidate for President a year ago. Joe Biden called his political adversary to check on his welfare and later addressed the nation, reminding us, We're neighbors or friends, coworkers, citizens. Most importantly, we are fellow Americans, we must stand together.”

That feels like a hundred years ago now. Time flies when you're living in a hate-fueled vortex.