I'm fine with that.
My No Labels quotes, shared on my Facebook page, get positive responses from the most conservative, Evangelical, not-on-my-page-at-all, connections.
There is something to be said about finding a center, about working with one another instead of screaming as we hold onto the outer edges of our beliefs. I'm trying to be open minded.
TBG says that Hillbilly Elegy opened his eyes to the other. Watching Longmire on Netflix last night reminded us that not everyone lives within shouting distance of a Walgreens or a Walmart. The disconnect between what I feel and what is happening seems to be getting wider with every passing hour. I'm trying to bridge the gap.
And then I think of the gunman in Ft. Lauderdale.
He reloaded 3 times.
Had our shooter had the chance to reload, I am certain that I would
not be sitting at my desk typing this to you. I would be dead. But citizen heroes, Roger Salzgeber and Col. Bill Badger, 70 year old white guys just standing in line like the rest of us, jumped over fallen bodies and tackled the man before he could put another magazine in his Glock. Pat Maisch grappled for the magazine, wrenching it away before more damage could be done.
There were no heroes in Ft. Lauderdale. There were people running for their lives (understandable) and people hiding in terror (even more understandable) and people who lost their shoes and their luggage and their identification in the tumult (laughable, in a dark humor sort of way) but there were no people willing to jump the gunman and disarm him.
As Pat Maisch said in her editorial, here in Tucson two brave men, good guys without guns...tackled the shooter without regard for their own safety. How sad that there were no heroes in the airport in Ft. Lauderdale. How many lives might have been saved?
Teddy Roosevelt was right:
Sometimes, the solution involves putting yourself at risk. Sometimes the solution is as simple as making a phone call. Sitting quietly on the sidelines is not an option. We are all in this together. We all need to do the work.
