I was a little more stunned than surprised, Saturday afternoon when I heard the news from Butler, Pennsylvania. Donald Trump has made a lifelong mission out of courting attention. Good or bad, that’s his style. You may love him, or you may hate him, but you can’t really ignore him. When you draw that much attention, sooner or later things can take a bad turn. So even though most of us probably thought this country was beyond the point of having to deal with another attempt on the life of a national political figure, I always feared that sooner or later Trump might encounter some serious form of evil. That’s what came about this past Saturday afternoon in the guise of an unremarkable 20-year-old named Thomas Crooks who with a semi-automatic rifle climbed a building near a political rally and fired multiple shots at the Republican candidate for President, Donald Trump. So, surprise was not my immediate reaction. Disgust and dismay were. Thanks to the shooter’s lack of skill or mostly the Good Lord above, the former President escaped serious injury by less than an inch. Sadly, others did not. There is great loss to deal with, and once again, there is repair and healing that must occur. The “national conversation” will now flow from the Washington D.C. teleprompters in scripted pleas to “turn away from the vicious political rhetoric and the bitterness and division that tears this country apart.” Once again, we will be told we must search for a way to bring unity back into our national soul. But where are the leaders who will rise above the hypocrisy, turn words into action, and lead that search, and where are the media CEOs who will stand up to curb the excesses of their own organizations and the inflammatory nature of their brand of journalism? The absence of a promise for meaningful action on the part of our government and the deafening silence from the mass media lead us to believe that there is no acceptance or acknowledgement of this problem. Without that, there is no avoidance of a condition that grows worse and worse. Unity is not a state of being. It is not absolute. It will not magically cure all our ills. But it is perhaps the first step required in any worthwhile process. In this time and place, a foundational reset of what this country is all about may be required. A serious effort by serious leaders to improve this condition is desperately needed and must involve an honest examination of how well or how poorly we have adhered to the principles that framed this government 248 years ago and supported this country’s growth from infancy to world preeminence. Only with inspired, determined leadership can this renewal take place. We all know the same platitudes and overworked political lip service of yesterday will not work. We will remain a divided, dysfunctional government until progressive as well as conservative political leaders can be found and bound to put aside the unworkable past and forge a future of shared respect for the sake of this country. Our nation can be restored to the place where negotiation, civility and compromise in government were traits not only tolerated but celebrated. That is how this country once operated and flourished, and that is how it can work again. One thing is certain, we cannot continue down the road we are now on. This past Saturday is evidence of the danger and division ahead if we do.
