I am late getting my blog post up this morning because I had an early appointment with my talent chiropractor but here at lunch I can take a little of my fiction writing time to comment on the breaking but not surprising news that mail bombs were sent by persons unknown to several politicians and prominent people.

I do follow the adage that you know the nature of the perpetrator by knowing their victims and the fact this morning’s murderous attempts targeted liberals and other ‘enemies’ of the right certainly is consistent with the person or persons who constructed the devices belonging to the conservative side of the debate. After years of crafting elaborate conspiracies around these person, about their birth, their motivations, and ascribing all manner of evil to them it hardly unexpected that somebody would take it upon themselves to ‘do the right thing’ and fight back. Of course having a President that labels a free press as an enemy of the people, phrasing better suited to Stalin than to our Chief Executive, and whose rallies incite violence contributed to this bitter news. To me there is a direct line from ‘enemy of the people’ to this morning’s attacks. Violence is always preceded by violent thoughts. Once violence becomes an acceptable method of political discourse the future becomes dangerous.

Had those bomb been delivered to Trump, Paul Ryan, and Senator McConnell I would just as quickly draw a line from ‘punch Nazis’ to those same hypothetical attacks. Once the rabid dog of political violence is unleashed it obeys no master.

There are those who are going to try to take this morning’s news to silence all discourse and criticism of the administration, drawing a false equivalency between vocal reprimands and actual threats. These people need to be rejected as solidly as those who advocate physical violence.

Of course this also exactly what enemies in the Kremlin want to see. They fanned the flames of political hatred, inflaming the division that already threatened our society’s fabric, with the hopes of causing us to defeat ourselves. Don’t help them. Don’t share, false, mean, or spiteful memes on Twitter and Facebook. Too often these are the weapons meant to weaken us and it is one reason why I try to avoid name-calling and insulting attacks.

Civility does not require servility, we can fight for everyone’s rights, we can fight the hate without deploying more hate, and we must do this if our country is to not only survive but come closer to that more perfect union, to come closer to its ideals.