Dear members of the GU Politics community,
As we all continue to receive more information and process the terrible events in Butler, PA, this much is clear – a senseless act of violence targeted and injured a former President of the United States, killed at least one spectator and injured two others.
We’ll learn more in the coming days as the investigation unfolds, but we should not waste any time in condemning political violence in any form. It was wrong when it targeted Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, Congressman Steve Scalise, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul, and now President Trump. Our politics may get heated, but our democracy will not survive if we allow political violence to become normalized. We are better than this, and I’m heartened to see so many leaders from both sides of the aisle condemn the attack swiftly and forcefully.
Our Institute remains committed to the notion that “public service is a good thing, politics can be too.” But for that to be true, we have to do politics better. As we prepare to take cohorts of students to observe the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month, we are uplifted by their commitment to making politics work better by working through – rather than stoking – political polarization.
Please join me in sharing prayers and thoughts with President Trump and his family, and with the other victims of this senseless tragedy and their families. Please join me in thanking the United States Secret Service, first responders and other law enforcement officers for their swift response which prevented a terrible event from becoming an even bigger tragedy.
And please join me in sharing prayers and thoughts for our country, and our entire American family. We will not agree on everything, nor should we. But let us not wait for another senseless act of political violence to remind us that there are better ways to settle our differences. I believe in our democracy, and I am so proud to be part of this community – led by the example of our students – that strives every day to make it stronger.
Best,