As Americans, we’re fine with opinionated debate. In fact, our Constitution invites it.
Over the years, and especially in the last decade with the election of our country’s first black president and now the election of the divisive, pugnacious and populist Donald Trump, we’ve even become accustomed to the vitriol in our debate.
But we will never, ever, be OK with violence.
Yet that’s what we found ourselves with on a sunny Wednesday morning.
A suburban Washington baseball field where Republican members of Congress were practicing for the annual bipartisan baseball game that benefits charity was bloodied by a gunman whose Facebook posts are littered with partisan anger. The practice chatter was interrupted by gunfire when a 66-year-old man from Illinois opened fire with a rifle.