Sad, Worried, Uncertain

I can’t figure out how to feel right now.

After I got an alert last night about “loud noises” at a Trump rally near Pittsburgh, PA, I turned on the news and saw the footage.

I spent the evening going back and forth from CNN, the NY Times, Wapo, Twitter and Tik Tok. On Tik Tok, conspiracy theories abounded, that it had been faked. For a second, it made me pause….but it didn’t take long to discount that idea. The journalists and historians I follow on Twitter shared outrage at the tweets by Tim Scott and J.D Vance both wrote within minutes to say that the shooting was Biden’s fault. Other MAGA officials used similar language. That is so wrong to say. For one thing, Trump has incited violence in his words more often than any political figure in memory.

No matter in what form, violence shakes us up. Some are saying this will help Trump; I disagree. Trump will try to use it — as he did with the fist bumps immediately following the incident. I think in part that’s why I am so shaken; I do not look forward to MAGA people trying to magnify the shooting into something it is not. The anger and vitriol between the two sides of this election is hard to take. I am someone who hates coflict in my personal life; this is stressful.

We don’t know the motive of the shooter, it could be the act of a lonely, unhinged young man. Certainly we have had too many of those types of people with guns lately, wreacking havok.

One thought I had was, will this horrifying moment that I can only imagine change Trump in some human way?

President Biden’s words and actions last night and today were comforting. What a good man. If anyone can, he will do everything in his power to unite us.