Political disagreements are to be expected. Violence is not.
During a recent walk during the lunch hour in downtown New Orleans, I turned off Canal Street and onto St. Charles Avenue. At that intersection I saw two women who worship as Jehovah’s Witnesses. They were dressed conservatively, as most women associated with that denomination do, and they were standing next to a display printed with the question, « What does the Bible really teach? » A few steps past them stood a young woman with short cropped fluorescent hair. She wore a Planned Parenthood T-shirt and, as best I could tell, was seeking pedestrians’ signatures on a petition to show support for that organization. I was thankful at that moment that I lived in America, a place where people with opposite political views could stand so close to one another without any noticeable friction.
Tuesday night, at my Baptist church in New Orleans, I was teaching two junior-high-school-age boys the story in 1 Samuel about the aftermath of David killing Goliath. King Saul decides to kill David after he hears women singing that Saul had killed thousands but David tens of thousands. The boys were confused, and I realized that much of their confusion owed to their being raised in a country that’s so politically stable. With the obvious exception of the Civil War, I told them, we haven’t had a violent power struggle in the United States. But there are many places in our world where such violent political upheaval seems to always be a possibility, where people in power are constantly in fear of being overthrown.
The morning after that lesson, a 66-year-old Illinois man opened fire on a group of Republicans in Congress practicing on the diamond for their annual baseball game against the Democrats in Congress. That gunman wounded Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Majority Whip from Jefferson who also represents my neighborhood in New Orleans. Scalise, who was shot in the hip, had surgery immediately after and is expected to recover. Three other people were injured: a congressional aide, a lobbyist and a Capitol Police officer. The Capitol Police were at the baseball practice because of Scalise’s leadership position in the House. Officers returned fire and killed the gunman.
Scalise’s staunch conservatism is well known. So, too, is his affability and his remarkable ability to nurture meaningful friendships with people who disagree with his politics. His bromance with Rep. Cedric Richmond, now the leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, gets the most attention. But that’s not the only example of his relationships with his political adversaries. State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, issued a statement Wednesday morning. « I am deeply saddened and troubled that anyone would inflict terror on public servants, » she wrote. » Steve Scalise is my friend and former state legislative colleague. »
She also wrote, « I know personally that Steve and I share a core philosophy of standing up and fighting hard for what you believe in. He’s strong and I look forward to his full recovery. »
Looney Tunes had a series of cartoons in the 1950s and ’60s featuring Sam the Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf. They walk to work together as buddies with their arms draped over one another’s shoulders. After they clock out from their jobs, they walk away the same way. But when they’re actually at work and Ralph’s trying to steal the sheep that Sam’s protecting they try to clobber the hell out of one another. That analogy explains Scalise’s relationship to Democrats and the Democrats’ relationship to Scalise: We don’t have to hate one another, but when we’re in the arena, we’re going to try to destroy you. And we can slap each other’s backs and joke around later.
You can count me among those who disagree with Scalise on just about everything. Still, he’s my representative in Congress, and it infuriates me that somebody shot him.
If there’s enough room on a single city block for people with disparate political views, then there’s certainly enough room in our country.
Surely we can passionately disagree with our political adversaries without seeking their annihilation.
Jarvis DeBerry is deputy opinions editor for NOLA. COM | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at jdeberry@nola.com or at twitter.com/jarvisdeberry .
