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Country facing a wakeup call

We need help. What happened last week in Alexandria, Va., made that shockingly clear. We’ve allowed a few people, probably no more than 500 throughout the country, to put us at each other’s throats.

It’s horrifying anytime a public official is attacked, of course. But how a group of congressman was assaulted by a deranged man with a rifle ought to be a wakeup call.

They were practicing baseball, in preparation for an annual game that pits Democrat and Republican lawmakers against each other. Proceeds go to charity.

If you’ve never been involved in truly fierce, perhaps brutal, competition, you may not understand. Many people can relate to situations in which they were engaged in athletic competitions and opponents hurt them.

It may have been an elbow in the face during a basketball game. There may not actually have been an injury, as when a baseball pitcher “brushes back” a hitter.

But chances are, once the contest was over, there was no enmity. If anything, a feeling of camaraderie may have been created.

That’s the whole idea behind the congressional baseball game. Instead of viewing each other as bitter political foes, participants just see other folks as eager as they are to play the game.

It’s a really, really good idea. It might be the poster event for the “why can’t we just get along” movement.

But on Wednesday, a nutcase who hated Republicans decided baseball practice was a good idea to shoot some of them.

It appears his motivation was that he thinks Republicans are heartless. Had he been in his right mind, it might have occurred to him that reacting to what he perceived as evil with more evil doesn’t make a lot of sense.

How’d he get that way?

We know the answer. We let a handful of entertainers, so-called news media figures, politicians and professional agitators get into our heads.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I suspect I’m more inclined than the next person to question the wisdom of someone’s political or social viewpoints. But in thousands of opinion pieces, I don’t ever recall writing or even implying that a politician was evil.

That’s not a consideration that seems to cross the minds of some folks on both sides of the ideological divide.

So now, I’ll break my own rule: Don’t listen to these people. They claim their hearts are in the right place — but what they’re doing is evil. If we’re not careful, we’ll allow them to rip us apart as a nation.

In case you hadn’t noticed, they’re already well on their way to succeeding.

Myer can be reached at: mmyer@theintelligencer.net.

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