This may be just the beginning

Persistence pays off for one reader of The Front Page

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Since the news broke Saturday evening, I've had this feeling I've been unable to shake.

This nervousness in the pit of my stomach, a continuing anxiety that was still there when I awoke early Sunday morning.

More than once, I turned off the news coverage unable to watch.

For a former newspaper editor like me, it was out of character.

My fear is that this is just the beginning.

There is dread that more violence will follow. There is angst about the weeks and months ahead, knowing those elected to represent us are incapable of dialing back their rhetoric and distortions as part of their lust for power.

The true motives of the shooter are unknown as I write this Sunday and like Lee Harvey Oswald, James Early Ray and Sirhan Sirhan those motives may never be known or understood, but in our hearts we all know why this happened.

It is hate and our inability to see the danger in it, to see the toxicity in all aspects of our culture.

The words commonly used - "polarized" and "divided" - are not strong enough anymore, not frightening enough to instigate the dramatic changes needed in each and every one of us.

Like mass shootings, the political hate has become commonplace, routine, perhaps inevitable when 20-year-olds are in possession of an AR-15.

There is rage and deep-seated hate that is hard to explain in a country that is still the richest in the world.

How do we explain this hate?

How do we condone it with our silence?

Why do we continue to re-elect the same people and wonder why nothing ever changes?

It wasn't long ago, a man broke into the home of the Speaker of the House and hit her husband over the head with a hammer.

Oh yeah, you forgot about that one.

This is our world now.

It has somehow become acceptable.

That we are unable to respect each other or even talk to each other - even among families - is at the root of the problem that continues to escalate.

Too many of us hate each other.

Too many of us believe the lies our political leaders spew until we now live, not in two different countries, but two different realities.

Many will say Saturday's events are the culmination of all this hate, but maybe it is just the beginning.

Others will insist this is rock bottom.

My feeling is of impending doom.

Sadly, my 67 years on this earth means I have been here before with a childhood filled with assassinations and an adulthood with too many mass shootings to count.

Sure, we have problems and disagreements, but compared to other countries around the world we have a robust economy and outstanding standard of living.

Except that we hate each other.

So how we go forward from here and what we do next at this crossroads is the real question.

Perhaps, it starts with one word: Enough!

That should be the rallying cry.

That should be the goal.

The Republican National Convention takes place this week and how this assassination attempt and our divisions are handled will set the tone for what happens next.

I'm afraid to watch.

I suspect the pit in my stomach is because I know it is too late for us to change course.

It is part of who we are now and none of us knows how to stop it.

Mockingbird No. 1

When To Kill a Mockingbird returned to Broadway a couple years ago, we went to see it.

We had always loved the movie with Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, but I realized I had never read the book. So I sat down and polished off the Harper Lee classic.

Since the book was first published in 1960, it has never been out of print. In 2006, a World Book Day poll conducted by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) in England asked librarians "What book should every adult reader read before they die?"

To Kill a Mockingbird was voted first in front of the Bible. The Lord of Rings trilogy was third.

So if you are looking for a great summer book, this is it.

Persistence pays off

A couple weeks ago, a reader complained that he could not get his monthly payment to work on our website.

He was frustrated.

I took a look and I was frustrated because I was not sure why our third-party billing agent - Stripe - was rejecting his payment.

Most of us would have eventually given up. After all, he could still read the newsletter for free. But Pat Luppens is not like most of us.

He kept trying.

I kept suggesting alternatives. Finally, he canceled his old paid subscription entirely and tried to set up a new one. He still could not get a new subscription to work.

But Pat finally figured it out and is now back as paid subscriber.

We all should have that type of persistence. I'm hoping some of it was because we are providing a product that cannot be found elsewhere.

Thanks again Pat for your support.

ATF in full swing

The Adirondack Theater Festival is in full swing this month so don't miss any of these shows.

If you have never been to ATF, check out this interview with Producing Artistic Director Miriam Weisfeld with WAMC's Joe Donahue, then go see a show.

Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.