I am stunned as I write this.
A sitting member of Congress, Rep. Steve Scalise, was shot this morning, based purely upon his political beliefs.
The shooter, James Hodgkinson, posted many anti-Trump rants on his social media feeds. And, it is reported that before unloading approximately 50 shots at a congressional baseball game, he asked if the group was comprised of Democrats or Republicans.
Let me be as blunt and clear as I know how to be:
Whereas the shooter pulled the trigger, and now must answer for his vile deeds before God — since he was shot on the scene and later succumbed to his injuries — he is not the only one to blame.
After a fair election representing the will of the people, we have seen nothing but a culture of hate spewed forth by the Left. Post after post after the election was filled with #NotMyPresident. Riots on Inauguration Day. Silly kitty-hatted women dressed as genitalia – many with kids in tow as political props with sayings far too precocious to have come from them – listening to “celebrities” talk bout blowing up the White House, and spouting ugly prose.
And, then, the piece de #RESISTANCE: Kathy Griffin’s “joke” holding the “severed head” of a sitting president she disagrees with.
Sure, many — even on her side of the aisle — panned the action. But many did not. Jerry Seinfeld didn’t “get what the big deal” was. Anderson Cooper hoped she “bounced back.”
Not long after, a play glorifying the assassination of President Trump came out. The director of which saw nothing wrong with the scene.
Here’s the irony: The folks who idealize gun control 1) ended up shooting up the joint; 2) were saved by gun-toting law enforcement, without whom – according to reports – we would have seen a massacre.
I am calling on every pink hat wearing, dyed in the wool Democrat who has ever said anything about this administration to take a page out of Nancy Pelosi’s playbook today, and denounce this tragedy.
Not only that, check yourself. Check your speech, your actions, your anger, your tone. Remember Hillary’s commercial with kids glued to a TV set watching Trump speeches, captioned “they’re watching you?” Well, they are. We all are.
I co-founded African-American Conservatives based on political dissent. I didn’t dress up as a body part. I didn’t scream “NOT MY PRESIDENT!”
I disagreed with just about everything the previous administration did. For eight whole years. But, never once did I say, “not my president.” I was proud of the historicity of the moment. That a bi-racial man – bi-racial just like me – was elected to the highest office in this nation.
I have ranted about the policies of that administration on these pages and on our radio show. But never once did I say Mr. Obama was “not my president.” In fact, I prayed for him.
I watched him advocate for Planned Parenthood, an organization founded to “eradicate human weeds” by a eugenicist woman who spoke before the Ladies Auxiliary of the KKK, Margaret Sanger. An organization that has achieved the milestone of seeing more Black babies aborted than born alive in New York City. An organization that has spawned a cultural genocide in the Black community. An organization that saw its core mission realized, because in order to survive as a race, Black America needs a 2.1% fertility replacement rate, and we are at 1.8%.
Yet, I denounced every effigy of him – unlike the Left who put up “Hitlerian” effigies of both presidents Bush 43 and Trump – every put down of his children – unlike the left who constantly attacked Bristol Palin – and every racial epithet I ever heard of him.
I was taught that regardless of who sits in the chair, you honor the office. Yet, we’ve seen sports teams “boycott” White House invitations (and rumors of boycotts are circulating at this moment). What an honor to be invited to the White House. As a brown person, to be invited to come in through the front door of our nation’s symbol of freedom and power?
I implore any and every one reading this: Check yourself.
Slow your roll and regard your actions. If “love trumps hate,” folks are not doing a very good job of this. Where is loving your “enemy?”
All this vitriol spewed is contributing to climate change all right: the political climate that has become so frosty, a man shot up a baseball field of politicians this morning. That’s not love. The shooter “persisted” all right. But he did not prevail.
If you remember the old Smokey the Bear commercial, Smokey told us, “only YOU can prevent forest fires!” Well, the Bible tells us that “the tongue is a world of fire (James 3:6).” Proverbs 6:27 asks, “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?”
Don’t be that guy. Be love. “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” as Ghandi encouraged. Dr. King told us, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only love can do that.” If you have contributed to the culture of hate, use this opportunity to take stock “and make that change, sha’mon.” (Michael Jackson, Man in the Mirror).
Our prayers for a speedy recovery for Rep. Scalise.
— Marie Stroughter
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This post was originally published June 14, 2017 on the African American Conservatives Website
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