Published on The Tribune-Democrat website on June 17th, 2017:
The shooting this week at a GOP congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, attests to the terrifying reality that no one, not even our highest elected officials, are safe from the disturbing growth of violent acts nationwide.
What is particularly troubling is that the alleged assailant, James Hodgkinson, appears to have made a calculated attempt to inculcate fear over his political ideology of fierce opposition to President Donald Trump and the GOP.
Look up the State Department’s definition of terrorism, and suddenly the case can be made that he was a homegrown terrorist. Such radicals have gained alarming ground and pose a grave threat to our nation. They may not hold foreign names or look or dress differently from the average American, but their victims and families can tell you that they are just as dangerous as any other violent extremist.
Even though Hodgkinson may have been a supporter of Bernie Sanders, I completely embrace Sanders’ emphatic words on the Senate floor in the wake of the shooting, which were that violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society.
