I am still reeling from the news of what transpired early Saturday morning in Minnesota…
Peaceful political discourse has erupted into violence in my home state.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, Senator Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in their home. Senator John Hoffman and his wife were also violently shot upon in their home but survived and are recovering.
No matter who the target is, no matter what his / her beliefs are, no matter who the perpetrator is — violent assault, death threats, and assassination attempts are not the American way!
Although at the outset, our nation had to fight the American Revolution to initially gain our independence, our Founding Fathers worked very hard to forge a new path, a new government in which our leaders are peacefully elected, where we have a peaceful transfer of power, where our governing policies are determined through peaceful political discourse and votes, not through bullets, battles, or sheer tyrannical force of power.
No elected official should have to fear for their lives…
Just five days previous, Representative Hortman was the lone Democrat to support HF1, a bill that removes tax-payer funding of healthcare for adult illegal immigrants. This was part of the budget agreement she had helped to forge along with Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth and Governor Walz.
Despite the backing out of support from her Democrat caucus, Melissa Hortman held her ground and voted to honor the bi-partisan agreement she had made.
This is an honorable and courageous act that deserves our thanks.
On Tuesday when I learned of this, my first thought was that I should call her office to thank her. In the end, she did what was right. Unfortunately, I didn’t act on the thought and now it is too late.
So now I dedicate this post to Melissa Hortman, as well as to Lisa Demuth and any State Legislators who worked tirelessly across the aisle to arrive at common-sense improvements to help our government work better for the people of Minnesota. Our government and our processes are not perfect, but it’s efforts like Hortman and Demuth’s that make it incrementally better. We need more leaders like this in Minnesota.
There is going to be a Candlelight Vigil tonight on the steps of the State Capitol for Melissa & Mark Hortman.
Whether or not you can attend, right now is an important time for each of us to take a moment to write a card or email of thanks to our State Representative and State Senator, condemning violence and thanking them for their service. As my Senator Zach Duckworth summed it up so well:
“Politics is a place for debate, disagreement, and collaboration. Never violence.” — Senator Zach Duckworth
Look up “Who Represents Me?” HERE and take a moment to send an email expressing your support and prayers. Thank you.
Let us all continue to press in to pray for our State! Pray for the family members of these victims, pray for the safety of all our Legislators, pray for truth to come forth in the investigation.
Pray for the people of Minnesota, that our hearts would be rooted in faith in God and his righteous principles. For if we do not first govern ourselves internally, we will never be able to successfully govern society externally.