Better angels
The violent rampage at the congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Va., had this reader reflecting on a longer-term downward spiral that has occurred in the nation.
The U.S. House has been engulfed in an alarmingly balkanized existence for nearly two years. It would be pointless to rehash the exhausting political polarization. What’s more, there has been a thorough exposure of college campus intolerance.
But people and ideas are not simply being criticized or lambasted in the arena of ideas; they are getting pummeled —figuratively and literally. And that boiling mad intolerance was brandished at, of all things, a baseball practice for a charity event.
At a time when everything seems to be chaotic and senseless, charity and baseball are two institutions that Americans still get right. We are a generous people, and whether you love or loathe baseball, it’s the sport of exceptionalism and escape.
In addition to the brutal shooting at members of Congress, this was also an attack on two aspects of Americana that still remain functional. The attack was repelled by the valiant efforts of truly brave people, and subsequent acts of heroism were noticed by many grateful Americans.
Now, as we root for recovery, perhaps we can take crucial first steps to address the level of malignancy in our national division.
The dangers of tribalism and entitlement, in a toxic mix with seething anger, were on full display today. It is up to the better angels of the American character to illuminate this national fit of pique for what it is, in baseball parlance: bush league.
— Tom Caestecker Jr., Wilmette
Time for change
Throughout recorded history, there have always been unstable violent people. The difference now in the United States is a combination of violent political rhetoric exacerbated by social media and the proliferation of guns — specially assault weapons. I feel sympathy for U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise and wish him a full and speedy recovery. I hope that his fellow representatives in the U.S. Congress reconsider the lax gun laws that allowed his assailant, whose police records indicate had prior incidents of violence and aggravated discharge of a firearm, to have access to a handgun as well as a rifle. Congress has the ability to change these inept laws. What it desperately needs is the courage to do so.
— Wally Salganik, Buffalo Grove
