Farmers Weekly Review

By Nick Reiher

“How did things ever get so far? I don’t know. It was so unfortunate, so unnecessary.”

Fans of “The Godfather” will recognize this as Don Vito Corleone’s opening message to the leaders of the “five families” after a gangster war claimed the life of his son, Sonny, the son of another of the Dons, and very nearly, his own.

I ruminated on the state of our country following the death of a person on the dais at a rally for Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. That person was shot in the head, others were injured and Trump was shot in the ear.

First, I offer my sincere condolences to the family of the man who was shot and killed, and prayers for those who were injured, including Donald Trump. My first thought when I heard about the shooting, “Thank God, he’s OK.”

I do not like Donald Trump. Anyone who knows me or is a friend on my personal Facebook page knows that. Among my many friends, there are Trump fans. We have a mostly civil discourse on the political events of the day from time to time. Other times, we send thumbs-up, and even hearts on each other’s posts that are non-political.

Unfortunately, I had to block one former Facebook friend after the shooting. He kept saying, “Admit it! You’re happy Trump was shot! You’re happy he was almost assassinated!”

I reported both comments to Facebook due to hate speech. There is not one part of me, not even a little, that was happy about Donald Trump getting shot. Not one.

I do not like him, but that doesn’t mean I want to see him or anyone else hurt. I learned way too late in life that hating someone or some thing hurts me more than it does them.

That wasn’t always the way with me. I was so afraid of nuclear war under Reagan, I was happy when he got shot. I’m not proud of that now. But, like they say, when you know better, do better. I’m trying, maybe in part, to get a place in hell with a window view.

I am very worried, though. I am concerned for any politicians of any party who put themselves out in public. For too many years, we have too often settled our differences with violence in this country, as if it’s wimpy to do it any other way.

As I write this, no one is sure of the motive of the gunman, who was killed by authorities. The New York Times said he was a registered Republican, but he sent 15 bucks to the Democrats at one point.

Maybe he had mental issues. Maybe he was just evil. We don’t know. We do know people in both parties are making political hay out of this, with conspiracies leveled on both sides, as usual.

There are those, including my former Facebook friend, who are nearly giddy, saying Trump getting injured in an attempted assassination gives him a lock on returning to the White House. As if it were a test to see if he were a witch.

Again, my condolences to the family of the man who was killed, and I will be praying for those injured, and that nothing like this happen again.

But … the attempted assassination did nothing to change any of the issues that were there seconds before the shooting. It did nothing to make one man, either one, a stronger candidate, or the other a weaker candidate.

We still have our same, old issues. And like Don Corleone would admit during his meeting, we know how things got this far: hate. With conspiracy theories and venomous comments far outweighing the concern for Trump and the other shooting victims.

Someday, we need to put down the pitchforks and torches, and try to work toward what is good for everyone in this country.

Right now, to paraphrase the old quote, our greatest enemy is us.

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.