S-N Editorial

Former president Donald Trump escaped death by the thinnest of margins Saturday when a gunman narrowly missed his shot at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Trump suffered an ear injury and two others were hurt during the assassination attempt, while another audience member was tragically killed.

The attack was the first such on a sitting or former president since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. Trump has remained defiant in the days since and hasn’t let the attempt on his life affect his schedule. With a bandage over his right ear, he appeared at the GOP presidential convention Monday to raucous applause.

No matter your political affiliation, you can be thankful Trump was not seriously injured or killed. Political violence at all levels must be condemned outright – our differences can be dealt with civilly, not with a gun.

Unfortunately, assassination attempts on elected officials happen and are all too common. A gunman’s bullets have injured legislators like Gabby Giffords and Steve Scalise, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked with a hammer in his home two years ago. The assassinations of President John Kennedy and his brother, Robert, are burned into the nation’s memory, while former president Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life.

Saturday’s events should prove as a wakeup call to a country wrought with division, paranoia and vitriol. We cannot keep conducting ourselves like this, because it will be impossible to move forward. The Divided States of America needs to find some semblance of unity or we’ll eventually crumble at the feet of our own political unrest.

Civility must start ruling the day in the face of such turbulence. Until we realize that, we’ll continue this cyclical cycle that spawns only hatred and ugliness – the attempt on Trump’s life was just one example of that.

In the wake of the failed assassination, many leaders called on the country to unify and rise above hatred and division. Many have uttered the phrase, “We are better than this.” While that may be true, we have to try to be better than the mess we’ve gotten ourselves in. Americans of all political stripes have got to realize that their fellow countrymen are not the enemy.

We must move forward after Saturday’s events with a renewed focus on being a better nation. Though the actions of one crazed gunman do not speak for the masses, it’s clear we need to reverse course, cool the rhetoric and work together as Americans.