The Power of an Open Mind
We’ve entered a new season of gun violence of late. Each time a mass shooting takes place, we now rush to read the tea leaves for evidence of the shooter being from the Left or Right. And each time a shooter is found to have been politically motivated in some way, those on the other side stand ready with narratives prepared. And, oh, how the disingenuous self-righteousness then oozes forth! In fact, violence is committed by individuals all along the political spectrum. It serves no productive purpose to pretend otherwise. However, it’s also a fact that the majority of politically motivated murders committed in the U.S. are perpetrated by right-wing idealogues. It’s not even close. There are five right-wing motivated murders to every left-wing one . And, no, that’s not coming from some left-wing source. Those statistics were compiled by the right-leaning Cato Institute . Regardless, it doesn’t do any of us any good to dive into our respective narrative thickets each time a shooting ta...