On June 14th, a year ago, when some of the country was celebrating the president’s birthday at a military parade, and a whole lot of other people, we’re protesting the president at No King’s rallies, my state woke up to the horrific news of an assassination, and assassination attempt on state legislators.

The year has dulled our shock but not our wariness. The death of Minnesota State Speaker of the House, Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and the attack on State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, leaving them both gravely injured, were followed by other crises.

At the beginning of the school year, a shooting through the stained glass windows of a Catholic church and  school during mass, left two children dead and many more injured.

Which was then followed by Operation Metro Surge’s, invasion of thousands of ICE agents, who randomly and unlawfully, used excessive force on both citizens and non-citizens, as they arrested and detained people who looked like they might be in an  immigrant.

It’s been a hard year for us here in Minnesota. Political rhetoric has been inflamed by the events. Those who promised they would cut down hateful words after Melissa Hortman’s death, have found it hard to do so in today’s, enraged political scene . . . Even,  while looking at a freshly replenished bouquet of roses, sitting on the empty desk of the former Speaker of the House, each day of the legislative session.

This week, Vance Boelter,  pleaded guilty in Federal Court. Both to the assassination of the Hortmans and the shooting of the Hoffman’s, along with attempts at the home of two other legislators. One, blessedly out of town, and the other protected by a police officer, thinking to  check on her after hearing of the first shooting. More than seventy names were revealed on Vance Boelter’s hit list,

Vance Boelter’s motivations, are still unclear on what he hoped to accomplish, nor how his  Fundamentalist Christian faith played into his decisions. He admitted to months of planning and preparing, researching addresses and sometimes staking  out homes. His only stated goal, was to kill as many people in the state legislature as he could.

For the Hoffman’s, healing has come slowly. Multiple bullets going through a body and surgeries will take their toll on a person and time to heal . . . Even more so the emotional healing.

But they are trying. The Hoffman’s released a statement after Boelter’s guilty plea, appealing for a changed political atmosphere.

“There is no justice for Mark and Melissa Hortman, and there is not justice when our family and our state will never truly heal. While the legal process may provide accountability, true healing requires something more from all of us.”

“The choice we’ve made is to go forward with public service and being present for our community. The opportunity to justice is for Minnesotans and Americans to serve is to treat people with respect, to stop dehumanizing each other, and to stop dividing our country with hate and rhetoric.”

The writer of 1 John, points out the obvious, to those who claim to love God, but intend to do their neighbor’s harm. “Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” 1 John 4:20 to 21

When  all who name themselves as followers of Jesus, start to walk the talk, perhaps then, we will move into the future, a healthier society, ready to resolve our differences . . . Doing so with respect, humility and compassion.