Attempted Assassination - Never Good
No one deserves to be shot at.
It’s been a long time since an assassination attempt. I clearly remember the attempt on President Reagan’s life. I don’t remember, but I read so much about that it feels like I was there, the assassinations of both the Kennedy brothers.
It seems like it would go without saying that this is bad. Nothing Trump has done is punishable by death, and I don’t believe in the death penalty anyway. Certainly vigilante justice is not the way I hope our country will go. And other people are left dead and injured. No good comes of this. It disgusts me that some people are celebrating or worse. Please do not be just like the pro-Hamas idiots who celebrated October 7.
It scares me on multiple levels.
Political violence is being normalized in this country. Pro-Hamas people think it’s fine to terrorize Jewish students on campuses, burn the American flag in front of my city’s City Hall, and otherwise use violence to intimidate. We haven’t heard much yet about the motives of the shooter, but whatever they were, I wish he hadn’t had a gun.
I am afraid for my young friends and my not so young friends who want to run for political office. When they get attacked for their positions or their character or heaven forbid some stupid social media post they wrote in their twenties, so be it. You sign up for that as a political public figure. But I do not want to read a headline or worse get a text that people I know and care about have been shot.
This discourages everyone from participating in political events. I know I am too scared to go to any rally of any sort. It was a jump to go to the entirely peaceful Bring Them Home event, but I went, and fortunately we were not attacked. It was an early Sunday morning I think the Pro-Hamas crew was too hung over to protest us, or maybe they just aren’t organized enough to monitor what we peaceful Jews and allies are doing on Sunday mornings. Singing the American national anthem before the Israeli national anthem. Being in favor of civilization. You know, radical. Actually loving the country that provides us with the freedoms to assemble, express ourselves, and do yoga in a park.
I miss the idea of a nation of laws. Makes me want to hang out with lawyers - anybody want to invite me to a legal conference? Maybe I’ll binge read my friends’ papers on topics I don’t ordinarily think about… I find reading legal research very relaxing. This is proof that I did not go to law school.
Of course this country was never an ideal where the laws applied to everyone equally. But can we keep that as an ideal, as a goal we are moving toward, not away from?
I haven’t yet checked in with my Israeli friends to find out the Israeli reaction (or the reaction of some Israelis… the ones I plan to visit.) They are dealing with a terrorist attack yesterday. I imagine that is foremost on their minds, yet American politics do affect them. I’ll follow up with my favorite Israeli friend later today.
Meanwhile, I am going to Zen. I took a break from going to formal Zen practice, though I always sit zazen every day by myself in the morning early. I need to be back with my Zen community. It has been good to be back.
I wish all of you peace, shalom, shanti shanti ohm.
