Flag Day June 14,
2017
When I walked into the living room today my husband was
watching the news on TV and told me that there had been a shooting in the
Capitol,
Me: Oh God,
anyone hurt
Him: Yeah, a
few, there’s a congressman and a couple of cops
Me: I just
hope they will be okay
Him: Yeah
As the time passed there was more and more information about
the incident, the victims’ names and eventually the name of the shooter — a
short time later there was an announcement that the shooter had died from his
injuries.
Today is Flag Day. On June 14, 1777
there was a congressional resolution calling for an OFFICIAL American flag with
stars and stripes representing the colonies. In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson
suggested that June 14 be observed as Flag Day and celebrated with Patriotism.
In 1949 President Harry Truman signed that proclamation into law. The American
Flag stands today with 50 stars and 13 stripes as a symbol of freedom, liberty
and human rights.
“…One Nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
I typed the deceased shooter’s name into Google and came up
with his Facebook page. Curious about what would make a man fire upon others in
such an apparent random act of senseless violence I did click on his page to
see if he had posted any prior notice. The man was politically charged and not
a fan of the current administration and extremely verbal about his feelings. In
this country we do have the right of free speech and he did exercise it — but
from what I could read he didn’t advocate violence or killing. Whatever reason
this man may have justified his deed by, whether mental illness or some “plot”,
I cannot condone his actions.
However what did strike me, frighteningly so, were the multitudes
of comments filled with vitriol; I wasn’t the only one to have referenced his
page. And this was what I find even more abhorrent, the commentary on his page
was, almost without exception, celebrating his death as a “lesson” to any
others who disagreed with the current administration. The hate didn’t stop
there, regardless of the insulting and vile names that many of these people
used to label non-Trump supporters, there were actually jokes and comparisons
to the ovens of Nazi Germany and the fate of the residents of Hiroshima… these
are events that (should) have NO relevance to today’s incident.
The hatred that was spewed on his page included threats,
physical threats, to his family and friends. There were also several postings insulting
and threatening anyone who had “friended” the man on Facebook. Allegedly
several screenshots were made of the friends list and sent to the FBI and other
“interested groups”. A plea that had been posted on this man’s page to allow
his “shocked family” to mourn was answered with more hate, name-calling, and
threats.
Is this what our country has become? I am heartbroken. It
doesn’t matter what our political persuasions are, WE ARE AMERICANS. This
hatred and divisiveness is not what our country should stand for. We should all
be celebrating the principles
which our country was founded upon and living up to the ideals that the
many who have come before us tried to instill:
Individual Liberty: The
principle that each person is born with freedom from arbitrary or unjustified
restraint.
Federalism: A system of
dual sovereignty. ...
Limited Government: ...
Representative
Government: ...
Private Property: ...
“All Men Are Created
Equal”: ...
Separation of Powers/Checks
and Balances:
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