I am really troubled by yesterday's events and of other horrific events and the fallout that can occur after such atrocities. I saw a couple of quotes that got me thinking.

"A recent study by political scientist James Piazza found that countries where politicians used hate speech 'often' or 'extremely often' experienced an average of 107.9 domestic terrorist attacks compared to just 12.5 attacks in countries where politicians rarely used such language"

"As individuals and as a nation, our "task now is to not let the people at the extremes pull the rest of us over the edge with them," Dr. Garen Wintemute, the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis, urged in an interview today. "We need to make our rejection of political violence clear."

In June, Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered in their home leaving 2 children orphaned. She was a Minnesota state democratic representative, democratic state senator John Hoffman and his wife were also targeted. And yesterday, conservative republican influencer Charlie Kirk was murdered presumably because of his political views, leaving behind a wife and two children. And there have been the horrific school shootings.

My concern is that people, including myself, will get caught up in anger and hate. Let's remember that the perpetrators of these crimes are individuals that don't represent the wishes of whole groups of people. They don't represent the "leftists", or MAGA, or white men, or trans people, or evangelicals, or immigrants, or whatever group we may be tempted to put the blame on. Those deranged individuals should be brought to justice. As for the rest of us, let's promote peace, follow the peacemakers, don't get caught up in hate and revenge on groups of people who are also horrified by the violence. As the previous quotes suggest, that will just promote more division and violence.

Love and respect for all the human family is always the answer. It sounds cheesy and there is probably a better way to express what I'm trying to say, I'm not great with words. But, please, find your peace, promote peace and connection, and follow those that look for peace and reconciliation.