I recently posted about my daughter being in a car accident. Last night my son called my wife and me about a threat to the office where he works.
His boss is a congressperson in Colorado; he provides support for her team in a number of ways. In recent weeks a number of elected officials have received envelopes containing white powder.
White powder in and of itself is not scary but the history of such mailings is. Shortly after 9/11 someone started mailing envelopes to politicians containing white powder contaminated with anthrax. Automated sorting machines in central postal facilities shook the machines and five postal workers died of their infections. The FBI named a suspect (whose life as he knew it ended at that point) without providing satisfactory evidence of his guilt, without bringing a case to court. In any event that bout of terrorism ended. Mail security for politicians in the DC area was and is still very heightened.
We live in a world where a significant portion of the media encourages hatred, anger, and violence as a way to express displeasure with the way things are. People on the fringes of society react to it, and we live with an epidemic of mass shootings that often claim children as victims. The people we elect to govern us don't have much interest in changing it because we often elect people who campaign on being angry.
So my son's office received an envelope containing white powder. My son was not in the room when another staffer handled the envelope, recognized it from the security briefings given to congressional staffers (envelopes have been arriving at offices for several weeks now and all have the same appearance), set it down, thoroughly washed his hands and contacted the FBI, who confirmed that it contained white powder. So far all of the white powder has been inert; it is an act of terror so far and not actual murder.
My son realized that his office was going to be mentioned in the news and alerted us that he was safe and that the attack (call it for what it is) was quickly shunted away from any possible physical harm. He is in the middle of it and may be anxious when the adrenaline eases, but like many of our family he is good at delaying the anxiety until after the fact and doing what needs to be done.
My wife and I took parenting classes before becoming parents. They focused on keeping poisons out of reach, of safeguarding outlets and cords for curtains and blinds. None of what we face these days was covered all those years ago.
Who sent the envelopes? We may find out someday. I assume they live to see their actions on the news. The envelopes have been sent to politicians of both parties but all have the return address of a political group that has absolutely no incentive for this kind of action or attention; presumably the culprit dislikes this group and thinks this will in some way harm their reputation.
Political discourse has wandered so very far from issues of right and wrong, of the common good and differing opinions about how to achieve it. I am much more comfortable in calling out Trump as a sadist who has for many years enjoyed hurting people he doesn't like; I have no desire to commit violence against him, only to see those empowered to protect us from criminals to prosecute him for his illegal actions; declaring a war against Iran without the authority (which the Constitution gives to Congress), taking and giving so many bribes openly; so many high crimes and misdemeanors should lead to his impeachment, which would then open him to the deferred lawsuits from the dozens of women who have accused him of sexual assault, and charges against him for child rape based on what we already know from the Epstein files, that is what I hunger for.
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