I sit here this morning and I wonder how we are going to get through the next four months. My heart hurts so much. Yesterday we had a horrible thing happen; an attempted assassination of a past president and the Republican candidate for the upcoming election. It was close. Too close. Truly within an inch or two Donald Trump might not be alive today.
There have been lots of memes and jokes online already and I admit, I have found a few of them funny. But, but, but, it doesn’t take away the seriousness of what happened. We all need to understand that any kind of violence is totally unacceptable. We cannot let political divides change that. Violence is NEVER an answer.
As I am writing here, a post just appeared across my screen saying the shooter had explosives in his car. He lived with his parents, and used an AR-15 that was purchased by his father. Bits and pieces of information will continue to come in. The shooter was only 20 years old – not even a legal adult. He was a registered Republican. Maybe he left clues about what he planned to do. Maybe not. Maybe he was dealing with mental issues. Maybe he was bitter about something in his life. Maybe he just wanted to do something radical. We may learn more about why he did it or we may never know.
The good news is that Donald Trump was just grazed by the bullet. How he moved a bit at the podium may have made a difference of life and death. He should heal okay. I hope he does. But,we cannot forget that two others at the rally were killed by the bullets from the automatic gun. I believe two more are seriously injured. This young man shot at Trump while he stood in front of a stands full of people, without care of any of them.
I cannot turn on the TV right now because my heart and my stomach can not handle all the false narratives, all the speculations, all the blaming. The finger pointing. The meanness that will continue to spew. Before yesterday I thought we could not get any worse, but now I know that, yes, we can. It truly makes me want to cry. How are we going to make it through four more months?
Listen, Trump is not my favorite person – and he certainly is not my choice to be president again. But, what happened to him yesterday was horrible, and nobody should ever condone the actions of the shooter. Ever. As far as we know at this point Democrats were not responsible for it. Biden certainly didn’t plan it. Trump didn’t want it to happen. It was most likely the act of a lone young man, who for some reason did it.
I disagree on a lot of the Republican beliefs and I have read through what the ‘planks’ are for the convention starting tomorrow. It’s ok. I am allowed to think differently on their issues. And, I can be an advocate for things that concern me. One big concern I have always had is the ‘loose and free’ rights we allow for getting and owning guns. I have been vocal for a long time about innocent people getting killed – by drive by shootings, mass killings in crowds, road rage, and more. I have stated that I will not vote for any candidate who will not work towards better gun safety in our country and I continue to stand by it.
Look what happened yesterday. It was another in a long list of gun violence that might possibly have been stopped.
Will there be another political shooting before the election? I think all of us agree it could happen. With guns and irrational people. Anything can happen. It’s never good. Is this what we want?
I read an interesting article recently about how staying silent, providing no action, is acceptance to outcomes. It is allowing the violence to go on. So, are you okay with allowing the violence to go on??
Guns should never be a political issue to ponder. To debate. I believe that every Democrat and Republican should do whatever they can to keep all our officials safe. We should work towards a more civilized society. We should do anything and everything possible to keep our children safe!
Seriously, how are we going to make it through the next four months? And after that…. then what??
My heart hurts.
Marla’s Musings 