When I hear talk of political violence lately, it stands out to me how much it is part of the American Fabric. Soaked into the flag, the blood includes so many men and women who’s deaths were absolutely, political violence. Abraham Lincoln was killed, over having different political views than others. The entire Civil War, one could argue, was a war of Political Violence. North and South were fighting for how they felt America ‘should’ be.

These battles of Ideas, and for Control of the nation, have always been Part of this Nation.

Big or small, the battles that take place from the senate houses, to our homes in neighborhoods – Politics enters the chats.

It’s always in the mix, some ‘power dynamic’, a struggle happening as I type this, and as you read it later on. Some of us, willing to go to extremes – and that’s always been America.

While there are conspiracies over whether the shooter acted alone, or had help, it sounds like JFK’s assassination was also, political.  The killings of Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Hampton, Malcolm X … all political violence. President Lincoln, was absolutely a victim of political violence.  Traveling even further back in time to when slavery was in full swing, the ‘runaways’ who were punished, or even worse, lynched – were all victims of, you guessed it.

Political Violence: This is America –

While the ‘freedom to speak’ has mostly been upheld, it does not mean others will like it. Therein lies one of or biggest problems. Our society is failing at teaching people how to handle their emotions.  It’s not happening in our schools and certainly isn’t occurring in the home. Perhaps … a political battle exists over who’s responsibility it is. You see politics, absolutely everywhere, even in church.

One could even see the existence of so many “different Christian Denominations” as more evidence – of politics at play.

It is all around us …. (in my Morpheus voice)

When ‘mostly white’ Americans say things like, ‘I cannot believe what has happened to my country’, Black people roll their eyes. This has been America from the inception. Respect for others has always been missing, as much of what we see today with ICE agents separating families, goes back to the beginning. Nothing under this American sun, is new.  We all have to do better with our historical perspectives.  Can’t make the nation ‘better’ until we acknowledge it’s sick.