Baseball, Latin, and Politics

On Wednesday, June 14th, all major news bulletins lit up with reports of a shooter at a practice for the Congressional Baseball Game. Republican Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot in the hip  remains in critical condition. He, along with 3 others, were shot by a crazed Jame Hodgkinson. Later, it was reported that he had worked on Senator Sander's campaign and his Facebook page contained several anti-Trump/Conservative posts. In the days since, the media and public are jumping to the conclusion that this event is the culmination of the vile rhetoric coming out of both sides about the other.

Now while this is true, there is another missing layer. The point of view from my 87 year old, AP Latin teacher and why he should be broadcasted on every major news network lies in how he explained this other layer. In his youth, the most politically divisive episode the country went through was the Vietnam War. He talked about the opinions expressed on both sides about continuing the war or pulling out. However, he said that it was impossible to hear just your opinion. Many people had a side and the diversity of opinions was everywhere: at the dinner table, his Harvard campus, and even at the post-church brunch. However, as time progressed, the diversity of opinions has shifted. The diversity of opinions has increased, but, people now only listen to the opinions they care about already agree with. He now is anxious about Christmas dinner where his pro-Hillary son often faces of against his Right leaning daughter. Politics are almost taboo at the dinner table. This stems from people on both sides, refusing to accept the other. My teacher posits this phenomenon is from the rise of social media. People's timelines are filled with pages and sites they like, reflecting their own views.  He says this is the easy way out (he personally is a huge believer in hard work and loathes students who coast by or do minimal work) and that a real effort has to be made to expand horizons. He says all he does instead of grading tests is switch back between Fox and MSNBC, observing "two Americas". However, the vast majority of people live in a dichotomy, choosing one or the other. How can one live in a cohesive, productive society when the perception of the real world varies from person to person, party to party, news source to news source? Now he made clear that diversity is important, but similar to last weeks post, there must be courtesy in disagreement.

Relating back to the shooting, the media had it half right. Obviously, caustic material in an echo chamber becomes more dangerous over time. Overtime, opinions become more radical and reinforced in a sort of ideological Ponzi Scheme. But, one can be the most authoritarian-capitalist and another can be an anarchic-communist, but both need to be able to talk with one another. Wednesday's shooting is a result of a boiling over of political tension that has not been openly and respectfully talked about in any extent for the past year. However, all groups have to be able to talk or at the very least play some innings of baseball.