Murder is wrong. It is illegal. It leaves behind the family and friends of the victim. The political activities of the victim are irrelevant, no matter how controversial or hateful their messages and activities might have been to the perpetrator.

A leader of the Carnegie Institute for International Peace was interviewed on BBC yesterday about the killing of Charlie Kirk. I was in the car and did not retain her name. Her message was one I agree with and have put more crudely: As one side ramps up the ugliest rhetoric and actions, what she called “the outliers” will act. When that happens, the outliers from the other side will also act.

There are many whack jobs out there. Weapons are too easily obtained. Unbalanced people seize whatever parts of the messages that most speak to them and take them to extremes. Don’t like gays? Shoot up a night club. Don’t like religion? Shoot up a church or temple. Don’t like children? Shoot up a school.

From the other side: Don’t like someone opposing gun control? Shoot the speaker.

I see few efforts, never mind successful efforts, to “work across the aisle.” If two people don’t agree, all too frequently not only can they find no mutual ground, they refuse to look. I see it on a local basis. For example: a man well-known to town police committed assault and battery on a disabled woman at a standout. I saw his comments on social media some time ago. He believed what he wanted and did not seem to consider others’ input.

We need to do the hard work to find a common ground. We should not be afraid of expressing our support for the things that are most important. But, we all need to at least listen to those we don’t agree with. We need to not feed the trolls, those in the fringe elements.

I’m a liberal, a lifelong Democrat, so much so that one of my earliest memories entails watching the funeral procession of JFK over and over. I was a baby peacenik. After he died, I read a speech my father gave during that time and discovered that he was quite the hawk. Yet, we loved each other. Republicans were welcomed in our family’s orbit.

After Trump was reelected, I feared that a friend group would fray. Most of us are liberals, one couple is MAGA. He shared a video from a far-right site to support one of his political leanings. If he shared something from a more neutral publication, I would have given it a look. Another Trump supporter told me he and his wife wake up every morning afraid of what illegal immigrants will do. I could not begin to address that.

Is America working toward a common goal? I don’t see it now. There is too much hate and too much misinformation. People need to gather information, be able to tell opinion from fact and take the time to consider their positions.

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