An article in the Daily Local has prompted this post. I found it thought provoking. It is embedded and excerpted:
This was put out by the Daily Local as an article. It’s really an Op-Ed, but that is on whoever the current editor is, not the writer. It is miscategorized.
Part of the headline talks about “echoes of unity cross party lines.” I have to ask are they echoes or just a convenient use of politics? In my humble opinion, give it a few days, and it’ll be back to business as usual with politics.
What happened over the weekend on July 13th, 2024 was extraordinarily disturbing. And I still do NOT like Trump, but I do NOT think what happened was O.K. Not one little bit.
I have not liked Trump since he was just a sleazy real estate developer getting TV interviews. That has never changed and he’s still that same person. But he didn’t deserve an assassination attempt.
If you don’t want Trump as president, then stand up and use the power of your vote, use the power that our forefathers literally fought, blood, and died, for they fought for our freedom of choice. If we choose apathy over the unique power of a democracy in the ability to vote, we get the government we deserve.
I’m still trying to get my head wrapped around the concept that the person who did this was 20 years old. Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, PA.
Then someone reminded me that this was the age of the person who shot up Sandy Hook Elementary years ago.
Adam Lanza of Newtown, CT. He also killed his mother that same day he shot up an elementary school.
No one really knows at this point who Matthew Crooks was and they have found no manifesto. But his parents, like Adam Lanza’s mother was, appear to be gun enthusiasts. They also are apparently licensed professional counselors through the Pennsylvania social work board. The New York Times reports him as quiet and he played video games and liked coding. He had recently completed some kind of engineering associates degree at a community college, and was working as an aid in nursing home, and had few friends. I don’t like what video games have done to this country, so I have to wonder if a clue is there?
A UK paper says Crooks was bullied badly in high school. Another article somewhere said he had moved out of his parents’ house at one point? Yet another article referenced that his parents were actually registered Democrats although I don’t know what that has to do with anything?
I also am going to wonder completely out loud why his parents didn’t have these guns locked up away from him? Gun ownership is a responsibility. He was 20 and it was his father’s gun, so what gives there?
So someone who was not even legally old enough to drink within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, shot a former US President? Given the age, he hadn’t even ever voted yet in a presidential election either, had he? I remember being 20, and I can’t say the guns or shooting people entered into the equation at that stage of my life.
Of course I truly wonder how he got that close? How is that he got up on that building (where media reports say some sort of law enforcement was inside) and When the crowd first spotted him as you can see in media reports, why didn’t officials basically act immediately? My opinion on this and I’m not an expert in law-enforcement or security, or pretend to be, is kind of common sense: this is an area of Pennsylvania that is heavily pro-Trump. I can’t help but wonder if that is exactly why they never expected this?
A lot of times, political candidates, regardless of who they are, will deliberately choose locations where they know they literally have a fan base. And my opinion is they never expected something like this might happen there.
I also think that what happened, while horrible should not make one political candidate over another a martyr.
I also think that people need to remember more, the innocent bystanders who were injured, and the man who lost his life. The man who was killed literally took a bullet for his family. His name was Corey Comperatore. His family is grieving and reeling from the loss.
There were also two others injured. This should not have happened. And yet it has.
This craziness has been building since January 6, 2021 in my opinion. And we cannot forget the election season before. It was ugly and it was nasty and the vitriol and rhetoric from the Republican side was abhorrent in a lot of cases. And then we have January 6. And former President Trump did not deserve to be shot, because no one should be, however, we have to look at the tone that has been set in this country don’t we?
Even the most minor elections since the last presidential election have been nasty. In our area, in particular, we are rife with various extremist groups people on both sides of the aisle, riding the crazy train. Well the crazy train led us to Butler, PA on July 13, 2024.
Well stop the damn train, people, we didn’t sign up for this craziness. I just don’t understand how people can even think this was OK at all. You look at the people on social media, who basically have lost jobs and positions within their communities for social media posts after this event. And this event was an attempted assassination.
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2024/07/15/trump-shooting-prospect-park-fire/
Now I’ve had people try to start with me over my opinions about former President Trump and even about this event. So can I be any more clear? I am not going to think it’s OK that this man is turned into a martyr because of this assassination attempt however, I also am not going to think it’s OK to shoot someone running for political office.
It is not OK that this happened.
It is not OK that our country is devolving into chaos.
As Americans, we have to fight to stop this. And I don’t mean literally fight as in raise arms or a Civil War. We all studied it in high school and even college, remember?
Mind you it is sometimes really hard for people to remember the actual history in this country, because so many people go out of the way to hide it. And if we hide what happened, or pretend it didn’t happen, we are doomed to repeat a bad pattern. That’s why history matters and needs to be discussed, not hidden.
What I am saying is we need to fight with the power of our vote. I have been somewhat disgusted listening to people even within my own family who have said that they’re not going to vote in November because they just “can’t. ”
Not voting is not the answer. Voting 100% the way a political party has told you how to vote is also not the answer.
Americans have been devolving since 2000 when it comes to elections and that is my opinion it is also my opinion that people need to literally stop being sheeple. Take a few minutes and re-discover your own intellectual curiosity, and do your research. Don’t base your decision on what you see on social media, don’t even base your decision on what I’m saying as my opinion. Do your own goddamn homework and learn about candidates.
Get active in your communities because no one is going to do it for you.
Reject extremist groups like Klanned Karenhood who are complete 100 percent hypocrites anyway.
Reject fake news. Again do your own research from credible sources.
As Americans, we need to believe in ourselves and our country. We need to reject wanton violence, including the events of January 6, 2021. We need to reject attempted assassinations of politicians, NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE.
Instead of sowing the seeds of heat, we need to pull the weeds of hate.
You don’t have to like my opinion, but our founding fathers and the first amendment allow me to have it. I don’t believe in people who foment hate and nationwide discord.
Here in Pennsylvania we were founded by William Penn and Quaker values and sensibilities. It’s time to stop the madness and get back to those values and roots. besides, it’s too goddamn hot to hate so much.
Again (and I am being deliberately repetitive here) if we choose apathy or to look the other way over the unique power of a democracy in the ability to vote in free elections, we get the government we deserve. And then we stop being Americans.
Thanks for stopping by.
Pax.