We need to admit violence is American

I had this week’s commentary written and submitted early Saturday afternoon, but clearly, things have changed. I wanted to write about my daughter’s belief that capitalism is getting a reality check. She’s so smart. But so much for that.
Sometimes it’s a little odd for hyper-local news outlets to talk about things on a national scale. It’s not our role to report on those issues, but when something like an attempted assassination of a president takes place, it’s a bit disingenuous to ignore it completely.
With so many questions surrounding Saturday evening’s shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania that clipped the ear of former president Donald Trump while he was giving a speech at a rally, it’s hard to discuss it locally.
However, as I followed the story over the Internet, a theme developed that got me a little inspired to rewrite this week’s Beside the Point.
I listened to Fox News, CNN, News Nation, MSNBC moving around trying to get a full range of coverage and as up-to-date information as I could get. In that effort, I kept hearing this:
“This is not who we are.”
“This is not America.”
That’s garbage.
This is clearly who we are.
Lincoln at a theater; Garfield in a train station; McKinley at point-blank range in a receiving line; Teddy Roosevelt just missed being shot in Miami; Truman was not yet in the White House when two gunmen broke into Blair House and killed a White House policeman wounding two others; John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Jr.; Gerald Ford was shot at, Ronald Reagan was shot, and now Donald Trump.
This is exactly who we are.
School shootings, mass shootings, workplace violence, suicide – we are a violent society and we need to stop telling ourselves we’re not.
One of the creeds of Alcoholics Anonymous is that you can’t recover from alcoholism until you admit you’re an alcoholic. We, as a country, will never recover from our violent behavior until we stop saying it’s not who we are.
It's fair to say it’s not who we want to be as a nation. And that’s an admirable statement. But we have light years to go.
These are intelligent people saying violence isn’t who we are.   They don’t have anything else to say. But to repeat the mantra that violence is unAmerican is just a bunch of hooey.
Locally, we’re violent. Shootings and stabbings are part of southeast Iowa’s very recent history.
Some of my best friends carry guns. Some do it professionally and some do it because judicial interpretations of the second amendment gives them the right.
When I see things like that which transpired Saturday in Pennsylvania, I think of those people who carry weapons professionally in a protect-and-serve mode. I worry about the ‘when’ and not the ‘if’. My Taylor lives in New York City. Do you know many people in that city don’t watch the news because they don’t want to know what could be happening on their regular commute to work or in their neighborhoods.??! Again just prayers of keeping her safe and away from the violence of Americans is always in my head.
People who have our attention - be it political, or media, or other “influencers” - need to help us realize that this behavior is defining us, and in total fairness over the past 250 years we’ve been unable to prove that we are not a violent society.
This incident doesn’t shock me. It doesn’t even phase me. I’m watching this event unfold and, right after former President Trump is loaded into the secure vehicle, people are seen flipping off…who? They’re just looking back toward cameras and giving everyone the bird. That's America, too.
Less than an hour after the shooting, talking heads were making political hay on both sides. Someone in the Trump camp said liberals “need to be punished” at the ballot box. Democrats were giving deference to the tragedy and then saying this is why we need more gun control and need to bring the country together.
That’s a day late and a dollar short.
I used to carry the mantra, and I taught my daughters this – that people are inherently good. I know I still believe in that. I do. But, man, it’s getting harder and harder as these events continue to unfold. And I’m not just pointing to the nutbar who thought accessing a roof and trying to take out a man running for our nation’s highest office as the only evil - although that was incredibly evil.
It's also damaging for Americans to keep saying this isn’t America. It is.
Until we admit that we are a violent society, we will remain a violent society and things like this will continue to happen. It’s been a quarter of a millenia worth of this crap, and our historians and those chronicling the events of the nation, need to stop talking about these deeds being unAmerican and start admitting this is America.
Maybe then we can take steps that allow my friends, my daughter, and myself to go home and sleep in real peace – But that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is co-owner and editor of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.