Booth Kills Lincoln While Hamilton Targets Pence
The similarities are eerie. A theater, a play, an assassin or multiple actors. On the one hand, a bullet hitting the mark, on the other, words grazing the vice president elect. We live in a time and place where freedom of speech seems to mean we can say anything to anyone at any time. During a visit to the widely successful Broadway play Hamilton, the Vice President elect was subjected to a diatribe by the actors on stage. This was an ambush, not different than the cowardly act of John Wilkes Booth. Shoot in the back of the head and then run- but in this case the bullets were words. And to make matters worse, some in the audience booed the man during his introduction. Have some dignity.
There is a difference between respecting the man and respecting the position. Personally, I think President Obama was a terrible President. His use of executive orders to change things like the name of Mt. McKinley and his disastrous Affordable Care Act should seal his fate as one of our worst in history. However, I can separate out my dislike for the man and what he stood for, even his personality which I often found engaging and amusing, from his position as president. If he walked into a theater, I would applaud him, as he is our president. The terror attack on the vice-president elect was horrid. Shame on the actors for this tactic. Using your position on stage to attack the man and what you think he may or may not do....deplorable. Oh wait, that was a word used by a different candidate......
I recently was in Las Vegas during a protest march against Trump. They disrupted the city, vandalized, and in one community, so disrupted traffic that someone died as an ambulance was blocked from trying to progress. What has happened to civility? I was taught that we are free as long as our actions do not harm another or disrupt their enjoyment of the same freedoms as I enjoy. Do these protesters really think we are going to change our opinion or be swayed to their side of an argument by handling things in this way? And the actors in Hamilton...do you really think this is the forum for your political opinion? Did you vote? If not, you have no say as you gave that away. If you did vote legally, your voice was heard along with the millions of others like myself who voted. Now, it is time to get over it. You can't go back and change the rules after the fact- like some who want to influence the electoral college. Might I suggest to the actors that you work for the betterment of all society using a different stage. Work with our police and law enforcement to stop crime in our neighborhoods. Act more civilly to others that have different opinions than yours. And whatever you do, don't ambush the vice-president elect in the theater.