Reflecting on my previous post, I see the extremes in life growing ever wider. This week’s shooting—a catalyst—will send shock-waves that neither the left nor the right can fully grasp. Commentary suggests this is a crystallizing event, shattering the extremes we once knew and pushing them further apart. The left calls for punching more “Nazis”; the right demands protection for their own. Those in the middle, the few still striving to keep a conversation alive, are ducking for cover as slings and arrows fly overhead. This isn’t the America I grew up in, and I wonder if we can ever return to that place.

I recall the storm Rush Limbaugh stirred on his AM radio show, whipping detractors into a frenzy with a well-chosen phrase. Back then, political violence wasn’t the centerpiece it is now. I never worried about my physical safety. I knew to avoid dangerous parts of town and stay aware when out and about. Now, though, “no-go zones” aren’t just pockets of cities—they’re entire metroplexes. The threat of violence is so palpable it’s no longer a question of if but when. When silence is deemed violence, only the loudest in the room seem permitted to call for the “termination” of Nazis in their midst.

I don’t know what comes next, but I have suspicions and fears. The press, as always, will fan the flames. Commentary on both sides will speak of civil war until it becomes the reality they crave but don’t truly understand. The extremes will only widen, and if we’re lucky, they’ll burn themselves out, allowing those in the middle to rebuild. But I fear that won’t happen—too much blood remains to be spilled, and spill it they will.

This isn’t how it was meant to be. I fear things will grow far worse before they improve—if they ever do. Will we ever find a common ground again?