Dahlias at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Fall 2024

There was an eerie silence in my neighborhood Saturday, at the edge of the lockdown area.  In the early morning hours of June 14,  Minnesota  state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were shot.

Never in my imagination, had I thought two public servants would be attacked in their homes  in the early morning hours.  Nor would I have thought the person who attacked them,  would be posing  as a policeman. It defies the logic of thought and reason, and makes all of us feel less safe .

Melissa Hortman was a frequent guest on local radio stations, which is probably why her death hit me so hard. She was bright and witty, compassionate and wise. Her compassion fueled legislation, as she acted on her deepest Christian values. I think of the incredible loss  she is for our state, and even greater loss for her family.

The Hortman’s two young adult children will no longer have the wisdom of parents to lean on. There will be no grandparents when children are born, or parents to celebrate their weddings. Each day, each special occasion,  will be a reminder of their traumatic loss.

We wonder what possesses a person, who claims to be a follower of Jesus, to make a hit list of over 70 people who disagree with him politically. Then to systematically begin the process of assassinating those public servants.

Our minds turn to mental illness, but more than that, to the breakdown of civility within our country. We have become a nation of grievances, a nation of resentments, of accusations and divisions. We have become a nation of inflammatory rhetoric. In the process,  we have  impoverished ourselves, by our lack of love for those whose beliefs, ideas and politics are different than our own.

Today,  while we mourn lives taken by violence,  we ask ourselves what we might do, to build bridges of understanding, recognizing the value of each life . . . To see beyond our differences, and to know those we disagree with, not as enemies to purge, but as God’s beloved children.

“But the wisdom from above is in the first place pure; and then peace-loving, considerate, and open-minded; it is straightforward and sincere, rich in compassion and in deeds of kindness that are its fruit. Peace is the seed-bed of righteousness, and the peacemakers will reap its harvest.” James 3:17-18 REB