Robert L. Dear entered a Planned Parenthood clinic Friday, Nov. 27 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and opened fire.
Dear shot and killed veteran Ke’Arre Marcell Stewart, mother Jennifer Markovsky and police officer Garrett Swasey. Nine more were injured in the shooting.
Preying on the weak and vulnerable, the horrific attack rightly outraged the country. It is a cliché, but a true one, that we see who we are in times of great distress. In the wake of this attack we as a nation had a chance to rise together in unity.
We failed. Instead of an outpouring of support, we responded to an act of hate with more hate. In an opportunity to turn tragedy into change we fell into accusations and counter-accusations over who was to blame.
Critics linked Dear’s comments of “no more baby parts” to the release of a series of videos during the summer that accused Planned Parenthood of violating federal law regarding the sale of aborted tissue.
The other side of the aisle railed back with charges of media bias and more hatred — accusations of politicization and vitriol, more division.
I believe that linking the actions of this man to the overwhelmingly peaceful pro-life movement falls into the same trap as those who link all adherents of the overwhelmingly peaceful religion of Islam to a few radical terrorists. I believe that responding to criticism without offering solutions fails to offer the leadership necessary to move our country forward.
These types of responses diminish complex and nuanced issues into sound bites and stop us from having meaningful conversation. There are real and valid disagreements between us. This event struck a chord on many of those issues: firearms, abortion, terrorism and mental health.
Throwing blame is easier than sitting down and talking. We need to recognize the other side has our country’s best interests at heart as much as we do. We need to dig deep and find the empathy necessary to work with those whose closely held beliefs are almost diametrically opposed to our own. Too often, it seems we cannot find the strength to swallow our pride and do just that.
As students, we are moving into a political environment where our leaders can’t talk to each other and those who disagree with us are painted as evil, bigoted or just plain stupid.
Our generation is rising and we have a choice to make. We can choose the same political world that we have seen for so many years. We can choose division over unity and hatred over understanding. Or we can choose to change. We can choose to come together, not to give up, give in or pretend we don’t have differences, but to work together.
No matter what you believe, right now we can all agree this is no way to live.
Brian Gamache
Chairman of the College Republicans
IU student
former IDS employee
