Please, don't politicize the awful congressional shooting

Take a deep breath. Think of the victims and their families. Don't politicize this.

A policeman on the scene of the congressional shooting.
(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

The shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) — who as majority whip is the third ranking Republican in the House — is a crime, a tragedy, and may very well have been a politically motivated act. But it is also an opportunity for the media, citizenry, and governing class to do something that goes against the normalized practices of modern discourse: Be prudent, calm, and decent in a time of high anxiety.

Details are sketchy and will continue to unfold, but the attempted massacre at a practice of the Republican congressional baseball team in Alexandria, Virginia, has left at least five people wounded, including Scalise. Everyone survived except the shooter.

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Anthony L. Fisher

Anthony L. Fisher is a journalist and filmmaker in New York with work also appearing at Vox, The Daily Beast, Reason, New York Daily News, Huffington Post, Newsweek, CNN, Fox News Channel, Sundance Channel, and Comedy Central. He also wrote and directed the feature film Sidewalk Traffic, available on major VOD platforms.