Mike’s Musings: Tone down political Rhetric demand answers from ss

Like many of you I was in shock when I heard there was an assassination attempt on former president Trump’s life while he was speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania. It had been 43 years since the barbaric act of assassinating a president had been tried (President Reagan- 1981) and as a nation I presumed we had left that barbarism behind us. I was wrong.
I was also wrong when I had read on many occasions that the Secret Service had so many forms of sophisticated weaponry and technology to protect the individuals they were tasked to protect. It is beyond my comprehension how a teenager could climb atop a roof 150 yards away and fire off several shots at the former president, one clipping the top of his ear and another killing an innocent father and firefighter who was simply attending the rally.
I again ask, how does this happen? As of two days after the incident, we had heard nothing from the Secret Service. No explanation, no apology, just crickets. If I were President Biden, or Trump, or any other person under the care of the Secret Service, I would be overhauling my security. This simply is unfathomable.
In the wake of the attempted assassination, many of our leaders are calling for less violent rhetoric and more civility. I for one have been preaching for this in many columns. Biden made a good speech Sunday night asking that we all tone it down but fell short in saying that he would be a leader in doing so. An election should be about issues, and not who can call their opponent the most horrific name.
I was going to write another piece on how civility and not vitriol should be the order of the day, and then I came upon this piece by Melania Trump. It hasn’t gotten a lot of play in mass media, but after her husband came withing an inch of being killed, I thought it expressed my feelings much better than I could. Here it is:
“When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life, and Barron’s life, were on the brink of devastating change,”
“A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion — his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration,” she said. “The core facets of my husband’s life — his human side — were buried below the political machine. Donald, the generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.”
“Let us not forget that differing opinions, policy, and political games are inferior to love,” she added. “Political concepts are simple when compared to us, human beings.”
“American politics are only one vehicle that can uplift our communities. Love, compassion, kindness and empathy are necessities.
“And let us remember that when the time comes to look beyond the left and the right, beyond the red and the blue, we all come from families with the passion to fight for a better life together, while we are here, in this earthly realm.
“This morning, ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence.”
“We all want a world where respect is paramount, family is first, and love transcends. We can realize this world again. Each of us must demand to get it back. We must insist that respect fills the cornerstone of our relationships again.
Amen.