On July 13, a young man of uncertain political beliefs attempted to assassinate a candidate for President of the United States. The motivations of the young man are unknown at present, but were perhaps mercurial; he had declared himself a Republican for the coming election but in the past he had made a small donation to a Democrat fundraising organization. Whatever the man’s impulses, the nation should be thankful his attempt at murder was unsuccessful. No matter what one thinks of Donald Trump, his murder is not a remedy. No assassination or physical assault of any kind can be justified over political ideas that will be adjudicated at the ballot box.

As Americans, we like to think assassinations are a part of politics in banana republics or foreign places where political fevers are allowed to run high and electoral corruption is not only claimed but well documented. Sadly, assassination has a long history in our own country, as well. In 1835, Andrew Jackson became the first of eighteen presidents to have assassination attempts made against them and many of those presidents were targeted more than once. Four assassinations have been successful; those of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John Kennedy.

Assassination attempts have few things in common. Some have been nipped in the bud and have escaped much public attention while others have become shots-fired spectacles for television. Some assassins have been inspired by political motives while others have simply been the scrambled products of unstable minds.

Three current or former presidents have been wounded as the result of assassination attempts, if one includes Donald Trump’s clipped ear as a real wound — which it is, of course. Had the former president made a one-inch movement to his right the assassin’s head-shot would have been successful. That would have been a tragedy for our country.

Now that gunfire has erupted at a political event and people have been killed or wounded, the woods are suddenly full of politicians and politicians’ supporters saying everyone needs to dial down the intensity of their political rhetoric. That’s true; but the frustrating thing is that people have been sounding that warning for years!

Individuals in both political parties have been guilty of excessive bombast; but it’s clear that the scales are not even in that account. Mr. Trump, in the words of the prophet Hosea (Hosea 8:7), has “sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind.” His constant use of inciting language, while intended to fire the emotions of his followers, has also fired a reaction against him. Warnings have been given many times that Trump’s abusive rhetoric maximizes the potential for violence, especially from the emotionally unstable. Now having been shot at, Mr. Trump says he wants to calm the political waters. The snap of passing bullets always has a sobering effect; but in any rational world, political sobriety does not require such heinous correction.

There is a 17th century Church in Leicestershire, England that was built immediately after the English civil war, a time when royalists and anti-royalists, alike, had degraded their country. An inscription over that church’s door thanks its founder, Sir Robert Shirley, “whose special praise it is to have done the best of things in the worst of times and to have hoped them in the most calamitous.”

In this present time where many fear a degradation of our own country, we should mimic Shirley in doing the best of things, not the worst, and in maintaining hope in the face of calamity. Hope, after all, is that beacon on a distant shore. It can only guide us home if it’s on all the time.