Donald Trump rally shooting is tragic. This is not what America stands for.
American politics should never be violent.
America learned that lesson long ago from the deaths of Presidents Lincoln, Kennedy, Garfield and McKinley. Historic figures such as Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy gave their lives serving America.
Other politicians have been injured by violence in recent history such as President Ronald Reagan, Gabby Giffords and Steve Scalise. Others have paid in blood for their service to this nation.
The violence inflicted on former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, at his rally near Pittsburgh was un-American.
A bullet grazed Trump's upper right ear, leaving it bloody. A bystander was killed.
Secret Service agents shot and killed Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, registered Republican the FBI identified as the shooter. A motive for the shooting has not been announced.
As more details unfold, Americans must pause and reflect on the dire position we find ourselves in as a nation as we move toward Election Day.
Is this what we want? We pray not.
We must unequivocally reject the idea that this is what this nation has become.
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That is not what we the people want. It is not what we the people need. This is not who we are.
The attack on Donald Trump is appalling and should be denounced by every freedom-loving American. Yes, we realize many blame him for the vitriol in our politics today. But violence is never the answer.
It flies in the face of the fair election principles this nation holds true. Those principles have held this union solid for generations.
Our democracy will not hold if such abhorrent behavior becomes the norm. We will not become the "shining city upon a hill" as President Reagan said, but a beacon for political violence.
We must reject such political vengeance and barbarism far too common around the world as not who America is.
No matter how you feel about former President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden, this is not what the United States of America stands for.
This must not be the future of America.
This piece was written by Dispatch Opinion Editor Amelia Robinson on behalf of the editorial board of The Columbus Dispatch. Editorials are fact-based assessments of issues of importance to the communities we serve. These are not the opinions of our reporting staff members, who strive for neutrality in their reporting.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Trump rally shooting tragic. This is not who we are as a nation
