A Day of Reckoning

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With blood on his ear and cheeks, Donald Trump said to his Secret Service detail before rushing him off the stage, "Wait." His resolve was unwavered. His will was undeterred. "Fight. Fight. Fight," he shouted with his fist held in the air, and a moment in time was captured that will remain forever in history. This is an image of leadership at its core, and serves as one more reminder to the American people to beg to ask, "Why would a man put his entire life on the line for the good of his country?" As Trump said in the presidential debate, "I would be very happy to be someplace else." If he had decided not to run, he would not have been plagued with political persecution, indictments, trials and everything else he has endured. And now, an assassination attempt. But he felt he had no choice when he saw the state of the country under Biden but to get into the race. The fact is that no matter on which side of the political aisle you stand, events such as this one rock the core of America. One millimeter more in one direction and the news we would be seeing wall to wall today would be about the assassination of a former president. No one ever truly wishes for that. Things like this transcend politics, and while we can disagree with one another on a variety of topics, ending the life someone with whom we disagree with is never an acceptable outcome. It's also a bit of a wakeup call as to just how divided as a country we have become, and how politically charged the world we live in is. Our country needs unity and at least some sense of oneness. There is no room for the level of hatred that has charged this political landscape the way it has since Trump became president. It may not be a call for some people to step into Donald Trump's corner. But it is a call for Americans to step back from all that has happened and reassess where we really are as a nation. Has our political rhetoric become too severe? We have to ask ourselves, is this the country we want not only for us, but for our children and grandchildren? A country literally at war with itself? A place where a simple discussion leads us to such intense emotional response that we cannot rationalize or digest the discourse with reasoned perspective? Our country can only succeed if somewhere in the middle of what we disagree about, we can still find enough common ground to offer a sense of balance. I am glad that Trump is okay, and relieved the nation was not confronted with a tragedy like the one we had to endure when Robert F. Kennedy was struck down, and the American people were forced to decide the fate of the country differently. If there is a positive outcome other than the one that happened, I hope that it is a reckoning of the American people that we cannot allow our differences to become acts of violence of the worst kind.