Opinion : Letter to the Editor: Rushing to Conclusions

To the Editor,

I along with other Democrats and liberal thinkers condemn political violence at every level.

Before anyone had been arrested for the shooting of Charlie Kirk, those on this page as well as many in the country were assigning blame to Democrats or anyone thinking differently than themselves. But with the arrest of the alleged suspect more and more is being made public, the actual truth is being revealed. The suspect is a 22-year-old white person from a conservative Morman Republican family. The suspect is seen on his Facebook page, (now deleted) to having photos of himself with guns. The suspect did not affiliate himself with either party on his voter registration, he dressed up as Trump for Halloween and a regular poster on right-wing forums. This is public knowledge.

Charlie Kirk was known for making provocative, divisive, and controversial statements. Could it just be that the suspect did not like what Kirk was selling and took it upon himself to silence him? All Republicans or conservatives probably do not agree with Kirk’s speech. At this time, no one knows why or how the suspect was radicalized, but it is high-time that we all stop making general assumptions when we do not know the facts.

Trump has done nothing to tone down the rhetoric and in fact adds to it with his demonization of anyone disagreeing with him. On Fox this morning Trump was asked, “How do we fix this country? How to we come back together.” Trump’s response was, “I TELL YOU SOMETHING THAT IS GOING TO GET ME IN TROUBLE, BUT I COULDN'T CARE LESS."  Those on right ready to assign blame to Democrats need to take a look at your leader who not only doesn’t care about this violence as long the victim is not someone he knows but is inciting violence once again.

Below is a list of recent targeting of elected officials and the political affiliation of the perpetrators. Tell me again that the left is always the problem.

1. The man who targeted and killed Democratic State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband of Minnesota and wounded another State Rep. and his wife, was a TRUMP SUPPORTER. Days after the murder, Trump said he wouldn't call Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, suggesting it would "waste time." Hortman was not mentioned in Trump's Sept. 10 address touching on several recent instances of political violence.

2. The man who targeted Kentucky Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro and family by an arson attack at the Governor’s mansion while the Governor and family were in the residence was a TRUMP SUPPORTER.

3. The men who wanted to hang Mike Pence on Jan. 6th were TRUMP SUPPORTERS.

4. The man who targeted and killed the son of Obama appointed District Judge Esther Salas was a TRUMP SUPPORTER.

5. The man who tried to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and assaulted her husband with a hammer in their home was a TRUMP SUPPORTER. Kirk commented that some conservative should provide the assailant with bond money to get him released from jail.

6. The men who were convicted trying to kidnap Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer were TRUMP SUPPORTERS

7. The man who sent pipe bombs to the homes of President’s Obama and Biden was a TRUMP SUPPORTER.

8. Thomas Crooks who was the shooter of Trump at Butler was a REGISTERED REPUBLICAN.

I am sure there is a list of those affiliated with Democrats perpetrating political violence. The point is party affiliation and assigning blame to a large set of the population is not the problem. Easy access to guns, the internet where people can sit alone in their house and become radicalized by reading and communicating online, and the current demonization of others from the highest levels of our government to our local level creates an atmosphere of blaming others for our problems, probably contributes more to the violence than party affiliation. Instead of jumping to conclusions and blaming Democrats for the killing of Kirk, those same people should look inward to themselves to understand that their rhetoric is part of the problem.

Rosemary Schwartz