Donald Trump is a glance to his right away from a casket.
Had he not directed his Butler, Penn., rally attendees to look up at the big screen to look at some data about illegal immigration, he would have taken a bullet straight to the head in front of thousands of people and on live television.
The shooter didn’t care.
Corey Comperatore was a 50-year-old firefighter, husband and father of two daughters.
The shooter didn’t care.
Comperatore cared. He cared enough to knock down his own wife and daughter and shield them with his body, and he absorbed the bullet that took his life.
Two other people were critically wounded.
The shooter didn’t care.
What drives a person to be so callous? What convinces a person that they are justified in taking someone else’s life?
We’ve seen it in our own backyard when two Hugoton women were murdered simply because a grandmother didn’t want to give up custody of her grandchildren.
One was the mother of the children and the other woman was a volunteer wife of a pastor who went along to the visitation trip to make sure all went as planned.
It didn’t
But the killers didn’t care.
They believed themselves justified because they believed themselves superior.
Our politics is all about that.
Try to have a political debate online and see how long it takes before someone is compared to Hitler or chastised as being ignorant.
When Jesus died on the cross, he didn’t die at the hands of the Jews or the Romans. He died because we all have sinned and fallen short of glory.
And the blood on the hands of the shooter is no different than the blood of Jesus on the hands of every sinner.
What have we done to allow ourselves to devalue one another so greatly that we believe it is the right thing to do to kill someone else? Or to silence them. Or to ban them from social media. Or whatever other justification we choose to make to explain away our own actions.
There is no way the media is not complicit in what happened. No media available ever looks at their own slanted view and question it.
Journalists are a rare breed, and you won’t find any on television or talk radio. You’ll find very few in print.
Journalists have turned their back on telling the truth and have become activists, advocating for one side or the other.
Some people question why we run some of the political articles we choose to run. But very few question whether or not the reporting done on the front page and the news pages is nothing short of objective.
Like civil servants, politics should not exist in news coverage.
But the media has learned that their business models can succeed with smaller audiences of devout followers who will watch their ads.
And so, one group of Americans get their news from far left sources and others from the far right.
And we work up a lather that convinces us that the other side is evil.
President Joe Biden blew his chance to turn down the temperature after making his call for unity by hitting partisan hot button issues.
It was neither the time nor the place.
Unlike Harry Truman, Biden never said the buck stops here. He didn’t say the reduction in temperature will start with me.
Even the Democratic Party’s official statement went right back to the partisan attack job we have come to expect with shots at Trump and Republicans as an “effort to move backwards.”
This condescending arrogance is what leads people to devalue one another.
It’s fine to say, The American people will get a chance to compare and contrast our views for the future, and we believe the Democratic path forward is the best one.”
Say it all day.
But the barrage of attacks leads to further rifts.
True statesmen rise above the fray.
When some were question whether or not Barack Obama was born in the United States, his opponent, John McCain, put an end to the controversy by saying “Obama is an honorable man.”
After Trump had part of his ear removed by a bullet Saturday, he spoke on the phone to Biden. It is my hope that the two men who are the leaders of the two largest political movements could share a human moment, where no one was villainized, demonized or chastised.
Too often we see keyboard warriors talk tough from the protection of their parents’ basements. They do a lot of talking but very little listening.
Our college campuses are rampant with Jewish hate, and professors more inclined to teach political theories rather than provide academic assets.
Before asking anyone else to turn down the heat, we must each examine ourselves. Are we focused on policy or personality? Are we attacking people or principles?
We cannot justify any personal assault because we believe we have the moral high ground.
If we are to be a kinder, gentler nation it doesn’t start with conditions on the other side. It starts when we look in the mirror and ask ourselves if we can tone it down a bit.
It starts when we tell our own side that we will win with better ideas, that we will listen to others and show compassion for their views even if we don’t agree with it.
America will begin the long, hard road back when we have leaders that will put the nation above party, and policy above personality.
If we can’t, the gangs and snipers will rule the streets. The politicians will be as corrupt as it takes to remain in power.
It only gets better if we demand it of our leaders. Do we have the courage to do it?
Earl Watt is the owner and publisher of the Leader & Times in Liberal, Kansas. Watt started his career in journalism in 1991 at the Southwest Daily Times. During his career, the newspaper has won a total of 17 Sweepstakes awards from the Kansas Press Association for editorial content and 18 Sweepstakes awards for advertising. Watt has been recognized with more than 70 first place awards for writing in categories from sports and column to best front pages, best sports pages and best opinion pages. Watt is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and is the descendant of several patriots who fought for America's freedom and independence.
