Way Too Hot, Way Too Humid…and My Thoughts Regarding the Recent MN Assassinations and Assassination Attempts

The weather here in Southeastern Wisconsin is bad. It’s been hot, humid, and nasty for the past several days…this on top of the previous few weeks of marginal to outright bad air quality (this for everyone, not just asthmatics like me).

Otherwise, I’ve been thinking about a lot of things. The shootings of the Minnesota lawmakers — the assassinations of one and her husband (Melissa and Mark Hortman), and the attempted assassinations of another and his wife (John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman) — have dwelled upon my mind. It is deeply upsetting that there are people in this country who do such awful things.

I’ve been saying this for years, mind, over the various terrible things that have happened. Not all of it has happened to politicians. Sometimes police have been shot (such as at a grocery store in Colorado) and killed while doing their jobs. (Indeed, there were police who were trying to keep order on January 6th, 2021, who got badly hurt. A few later died and there were at least ten who had significant injuries that caused them to retire early from the police force. Look up Michael Fanone’s name to find out what happened to him, that day.) There have been school kids killed for what seems like no reason whatsoever (Sandy Hook, Columbine, Uvalde).

I don’t know what the answers are to stop these things, especially as what tends to work in other countries does not work well in the United States. (Such as controlling the flow of automatic weapons. Note I didn’t say all weapons. The Second Amendment to the Constitution assuredly believed people should keep some weapons, though at the time it was written, gunsmithing was not very far along and automatic weaponry and semiautomatic weapons were not even a glimmer in a creator’s eye.)

But one thing I do know is, staying silent doesn’t work.

I condemn all of these various things that I’ve discussed. I have condemned them many times on my blog with other, awful things that have happened (including the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-AZ). And I most definitely condemn the assassination of the Hortmans and the attempted assassinations of the Hoffmans. I think if you believe in the Bible, as the shooter who assassinated the Hortmans and nearly managed to kill the Hoffmans supposedly did, that you need to look at the Ten Commandments again.

One of them is, “Thou shalt not kill.” Sometimes that is translated as “Thou shalt not murder.”

The shooter’s part-time roommate (I am not naming the shooter as I never do here at my blog) said in several places that he knew his roommate the shooter wasn’t happy with politicians. But the roommate also said that doing something like this is flat-out crazy. He never suspected the shooter. Pointed out that both he (the roommate) and the shooter had voted for Trump (there was a conspiracy theory going around saying that it was a leftwing activist who went after the Hortmans and Hoffmans for “not being left enough,” but that’s not the case).

I say this to point out that it’s more important to follow Jesus’s proposed eleventh commandment, that being “Love one another as I have loved you.”

I also want you to think about this: If Jesus were here now, who do you think he’d be helping? The homeless on the street, or the billionaires jetting from island to island? Would he be more likely to help the poor Mary Magdalenes of this world (i.e., prostitutes) or would he help those who already have power consolidate it into their two hands and never let it go?

If you honestly think that Jesus, if he came to Earth today, would not try to help the homeless and would not try to help contemporary Mary Magdalenes, I don’t know what to say to you.

“But Barb,” you protest. “Why wouldn’t he want to help the billionaires be better people?”

I think Jesus would want to do that. But if time was limited — and being in a mortal body, time is always limited — he’d help those who obviously needed it first. The drunks. The indigent. The folks trying their best who can’t catch a break. The prostitutes, especially those who’ve been human trafficked.

I do think that current-day billionaires should look at two people to perhaps give them some sort of enlightenment. The first is Bill Gates, who has vowed to give away his entire fortune before he dies. The second is, of all people, Cornelius Vanderbilt, as Vanderbilt’s philanthropy was almost as legendary as his ability to make lots and lots of money.

But as it’s very unlikely any of them will read my blog, I’ll leave the rest of you with this:

Be your best self. Care about others. Pay attention, and do what you can to alleviate other people’s pain. If you can make a positive difference for someone, do it.

That, to my mind, is what any positive religious influence, whether it’s Jesus, Confucius, the Buddha, Joseph Smith, or Baha’ullah, has hoped for us to do.

Also, keep listening to the new Pope. He has his head on straight. (You don’t have to agree with him 100% of the time. I think it’s impossible to agree with anyone 100% of the time.)

For those of you who feel as I do, stuck in the Void and wondering if anything you do will ever matter all that much, keep holding a positive thought as best you can.

One day at a time. Sometimes, one hour at a time, or one minute at a time. Just do your best to help others, and “Love one another the way I loved you,” as Jesus said. (Or as the Wiccans say, “Do what you want so long as you harm none.”)

P.S. The Hoffmans look on their way to a full recovery. I am very glad about this.

P.P.S. In case there’s any doubt, I condemn all violence. As Jon Stewart said last week on the Daily Show (Monday’s edition), “I don’t give a flying **** as to why this man” (meaning the shooter in MN) “did what he did.” (And yes, he said the actual word. I try not to do that, as if I started typing expletives all the time I’d get nothing done. But I did sympathize with Stewart while he used his own.)

P.P.P.S. I also am quite upset that the Hortmans’ faithful dog, a Golden Retriever, was shot. The Hortman children had to make the decision to put the poor dog down. Melissa Hortman, former Democratic Speaker of Minnesota’s lower house, was known for walking her dog, rain or shine, several times a day. That an innocent, loving animal was killed — as he wouldn’t have had to be put down without that shooter doing those atrocious and reprehensible things — in addition to the Hortmans themselves just angers me on a visceral level that I can’t quite explain.

Written by Barb Caffrey

June 23, 2025 at 6:22 am

10 Responses

Subscribe to comments with RSS.

c4c

Paul (Drak Bibliophile) Howard

June 23, 2025 at 9:26 am

Reply
Talking about shootings, here’s another. Is this “right-wing violence”?

https://www.foxnews.com/us/armed-gunman-shot-dead-after-opening-fire-sunday-church-service?lid=b8d336s56hcd

Paul (Drak Bibliophile) Howard

June 23, 2025 at 10:00 am

Reply
- Goodness only knows, Paul. I saw that the day it happened, and was just utterly saddened by it.
  
  Jon Stewart said on his “Daily Show” broadcast that I referenced in the blog that the only way to stop these shootings or even just slow them down is to put a ton of money into mental health care. That might catch someone like the guy who shot up Sandy Hook or this malcontent who perpetrated all that horror in Minnesota, and perhaps if they’re caught early, whatever has gone so far wrong for them can be improved.
  
  Therapy is always a risk, though. (I know this, having gone there.) It’ll stir up some deep stuff, and it’s not always easy to bear.
  
  But it’s a better risk to try therapy with folks like these (if you can catch them early) than to do what we’re doing now, which isn’t very much.
  
  I think ultimately violence is just that. Violence.
  
  Also, in this particular case, the reason I mentioned that the MN shooter/assassin was a Trump voter is because there was disinformation out there, particularly from Senator Lee, that said the assassin was a left-wing radical.
  
  I just would like fewer of these things to happen, Paul. I don’t know how to make it happen. But as I said in this blog, I can’t stay silent as that does nothing.
  
  I’m not sure what good my blog does, mind you, but it can’t hurt anything.
  
  Barb Caffrey
  
  June 23, 2025 at 5:41 pm
  
  Reply
  - I said more in response to your answer on Facebook.
    
    Until you get off your “Left-Wing Is Always Good” and “Right-Wing Is Always Evil”, there will be little agreement between us.
    
    Paul (Drak Bibliophile) Howard
    
    June 23, 2025 at 5:57 pm
  - I condemn all violence.
    
    One thing I did mean to say on FB but didn’t…I can’t answer for everything anyone on the left does. It’s not right to believe that I should be able to condemn every single thing idiots on the left happen to say on any given day, as I may not see it (being only one person) or it may seem too bothersome to point out how stupid it is.
    
    I don’t ask you to answer for anything Donald Trump does, Paul, such as today’s f-bomb in front of a bunch of reporters. (Not the first POTUS to do this at all, but possibly the first to do it on purpose out in front of a bunch of reporters.)
    
    Now, historically, Lyndon B. Johnson was probably the worst, followed by Richard Nixon. I guess Warren G. Harding was pretty bad for his time. Harry Truman swore a lot, but never in public and never around women if he could help it.
    
    Anyway, being POTUS is tough. I would prefer any POTUS not swear directly in front of reporters. But it is a man-killing job (so far, all men, so I didn’t use “person-killing”). Incredibly stressful. Not something that’s easy on anyone of any age.
    
    My digression about DJT swearing today (dropping the f-bomb) was more about this: I don’t blame you for what DJT does. I don’t blame you for what Republican Senators Mitch McConnell, Josh Hawley, or any of the rest of them do.
    
    Why don’t I? Because it’s unnecessary and really kind of pointless. You’re not them.
    
    I’m not the idiots out in LA burning things (I wish you remembered my previous blogs about the destruction in Kenosha and the burning in Milwaukee years ago and how much I condemned all of that). I’m not the ones out in Portland, OR, doing God knows what.
    
    I read a lot of things, and try to strike a balance as best I can. I know what I believe re: the US Constitution and how anyone in government should follow it as a matter of course. Anything else is a matter of opinion.
    
    But blaming me for stupid crap other people do, Paul, is counterproductive. I have nothing to do with that and if I knew any of them personally, I’d tell them off. If they’d done anything like burning those Waymo cars in Los Angeles, I’d urge them to turn themselves in.
    
    What else would you have me do? I am one woman. That’s it.
    
    Barb Caffrey
    
    June 24, 2025 at 7:54 pm
  - Ms Caffrey,
    
    I’m extremely annoyed by the Idiots in the Democratic Party and the Idiots in the National News Media.
    
    It’s extremely easy for me (and others like me) to see that people like you (on the other side) are No Different Than Those Idiots.
    
    So when you are noticeable for your silence on things like the assassination attempts against Trump, it is too easy to imagine that like many on your side that you’d prefer that Trump had been killed.
    
    You claim that you don’t think the ICE agents going after Illegal Immigrants are Gestapo, but you are silent about the Assholes who call them Gestapo. You also apparently haven’t researched why they are “masked, dressed in black, etc.”. If you had, you’d know that ordinary policemen would be dressed like that when going to arrest dangerous criminals. Of course, you apparently buy into the idea that all Illegal Immigrants are peaceful people. If you had done any real research, you’d know that the people first on ICE lists are dangerous criminals that Democratic Politicians have allowed to safely stay in the US.
    
    It is not counter-productive for you to take the effort to make it clear to people like me that you don’t agree with the garbage spewed by the Democratic Assholes and Asshole “Reporters”.
    
    Without that effort, you appear to believe that All Democratic Politicians are Godlike beings that lesser folks must believe and follow. And of course, it’s clear that you believe that anything that the National News Media claims is God’s Own Truth.
    
    You have never shown that you accept that critics of Democratic Party (in general) are NOT EVIL People.
    
    For that matter, to many of us the term “Right-Wing” just means People Who Reject The Democratic Party and their so-called Ideals.
    
    Therefore, the use of “Right-Wing” especially with the Lefty Idea That “Right-Wingers Are Evil” just means that anybody who disagree with the Democratic Party Are Evil.
    
    Thus Ms Caffrey, if you really want to talk with us, you have to show us that you aren’t LIKE THOSE PEOPLE.
    
    You have consistently failed to do so.
    
    Is Fair for me to insist that you do so? Maybe it is unfair, but this is the world we live in. Made so mostly by people on “Your Side”.
    
    It’s up to you but there’s a good reason for the lack of comments on your Facebook or this blog from conservatives.
    
    IE Why should we talk with the Enemy?
    
    Paul (Drak Bibliophile) Howard
    
    June 24, 2025 at 9:19 pm
  - Paul, I think most of what happens in this world is senseless and pointless.
    
    There’s a lot of garbage spewed by politicians and there always has been.
    
    My personal philosophy is along the lines of Will Rogers, who said something along the lines of, “Let the other party in for a while, so they can line their own pockets.”
    
    I didn’t write about the assassination attempt against Donald Trump because I was too ill at the time to do so. By the time I was well enough, it seemed like everyone had moved on. I also believed that as my stance has always been that I am appalled by such violence — whether it’s against conservative R Steve Scalise or whether it’s against moderate D Gabby Giffords — that would be understood.
    
    The assassination attempt turned the election in many ways for voters. Those who were at the rally in Pennsylvania when it happened were shocked and upset, as they should be. Stuff like that should not happen in a country that purports to be civilized.
    
    That’s why what happened here with these Minnesota politicians upset me so much.
    
    Now, one thing I’d like to point out to you is this: There are many in MN, including on the R side, who are upset. Rep. Hortman was known for working with the Rs, and had recently voted on behalf of a budget bill because she believed it was the best bill they could get under the circumstances. She was visibly saddened by this from what reports I’ve seen (I wish I could find that video; it was embedded in something else and then taken down, but if you’re interested it’s possible local media in MN might have it), but said that this is the democratic (small-d) process and it should be respected.
    
    Ms. Hortman also was the former speaker of the lower house in MN. (Speaker Emerita, they called it, the same term as the one former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now uses.) She was known as a pragmatic, dedicated legislator who had to try three times before she was finally elected to office.
    
    I admire this woman’s persistence, her public spirit, and as a dog-lover myself, her deep love for her Golden Retriever.
    
    That they’re all lying in state now in the MN statehouse is a testament to all of that.
    
    I never knew anything whatsoever about Melissa Hortman, much less her husband, much less her dog. I wish I hadn’t had to learn about how wonderful of a person she was, much less about her husband and dog. They all deserved longer lives. They didn’t deserve to have their lives taken in an instant by a man pretending to be a police officer, a man who the real police have said “stalked his victims like prey.”
    
    In Trump’s case, Paul, he was very lucky to survive such an incident. It winged him on the ear. I don’t even know how that’s possible. But that’s what happened, and he was fortunate it wasn’t a millimeter off one way or another as he would’ve likely died.
    
    While I do not like the bombastic nature of Donald Trump as a person, he of course didn’t deserve what happened there. No one does. He has a right to speak his mind (or not; at one rally he just danced along to songs, as I think he was quite tired from other things, and the crowd went along with it), and he shouldn’t have had to deal with an assassination attempt.
    
    Donald Trump was the first major politician in this country to suffer such a thing since 1981 and the attempt against Ronald Reagan’s life. That is a testament to the outstanding work of both the US Secret Service and the local and state police who work in tandem with them.
    
    There are a lot of things in this world that happen that I don’t agree with, Paul. Or that upset me. Or that are very frustrating. Or all of the above.
    
    I would like you to consider things from the opposite POV for just one minute and think about it this way: Many on the left are as hard-wired as many on the right these days. People aren’t listening to one another. They have put themselves into a cocoon that, in essence, reaffirms their feelings.
    
    Current media and social media practices reinforce this. We’re given what news the algorithm thinks we want, not the news that maybe we should have.
    
    I still go out of my way to look at things from the R point of view. I mostly don’t agree with it. But I think it’s wise to at least know what’s going on, and occasionally there is a point or two I take into consideration.
    
    The main thing is, we should not be enemies just because politically we believe in different things. We need a party that wants to hold the line on money as much as we need one that wishes to spend it. (There are many other reasons out there as to why someone typically votes one way or another.) We need our elected Reps and Senators to stand up and be counted, not abrogating their responsibilities by saying, “Well, the majority of US Reps didn’t like what I had to say, so I folded.” Too many Reps seem to be doing that right now and it bothers me.
    
    At any rate, I welcome your comments. I always have.
    
    Now, that “like” button is beyond me today, because I can’t say I like being called a potential enemy. But I still welcome your comments.
    
    Barb Caffrey
    
    June 26, 2025 at 12:25 am
  - The Left has made themselves the Enemy of anybody who thinks Differently Than Them and I include the National News Media in this.
    
    Paul (Drak Bibliophile) Howard
    
    June 26, 2025 at 9:26 am
  - I don’t know if that’s true, Paul, though there are assuredly members of the media who are not reasonable and who do not try for a balanced output. One of the reasons our country is so polarized is because of how the algorithms work online. Anything you already think (or that the computer thinks you think) is highlighted; anything you don’t like is minimized. This is one reason why both sides worry that the other side doesn’t see them as human beings with wants and needs of their own.
    
    I see myself as a centrist, except when it comes to things having to do with human rights (where I think I’m closer to the Libertarians). I think whatever someone does in their bedroom (so long as it’s consensual and preferably monogamous) is none of my business. I know that LGBTQ people exist (I have two relatives who are part of the IA that are sometimes added, those being intersexual and asexual), and I believe they should have the same rights as everyone else to get married, get divorced if they need to, and raise a family. I think it’s important to remember that there are many, many different kinds of people in this world, and as I’ve said here many times, I don’t even want everyone to believe the same things.
    
    How boring would that be, if we all believed the same things?
    
    I think we’re here to live, grow, and learn more about how other people live. It’s not up to me to make anyone do anything. I would prefer someone reason out a problem before jumping in to fix it, but that’s just my personal preference.
    
    Thinking things through usually gets rid of some behavior that later ends up as Darwin Award-worthy, if you take my meaning.
    
    There are US Reps I can’t stand among the Ds. There are US Reps I not only can’t stand but believe have violated their oaths to their people and even to the Constitution who are Rs. Because the second is worse, right now I’m concentrating on the problem I can see — making elected Representatives truly accountable to their constituents.
    
    I think every American should want this, but again, it’s not up to me.
    
    So, I work on behalf of what makes sense to me.
    
    I’d wanted to say one other thing about the assassination attempt against Trump last year. So many people had already said so many different things that, as I have said before, I trusted that folks would understand I absolutely was appalled by that.
    
    Elections should be decided at the ballot box. And that’s it.
    
    I still think a lot of this “enemy” talk is something that the media on the one hand and the leadership of both major parties has stirred up on the other. The reasons for that? Possibly that they figure they can bring in more money if we are led to truly hate the other side.
    
    So, the only other thing I can tell you is, be wary of what you see and try to get facts. Also, if you’re wrong at something, don’t be afraid to say so. (I’ve told y’all when I’ve been wrong before and undoubtedly I will say so again. I’m human and I make mistakes.)
    
    Barb Caffrey
    
    June 26, 2025 at 11:32 am
  - Nit, IMO talking about algorithms ignores the human element.
    
    The modern News Room is heavily Liberal/Leftist and don’t see the “Other Side” as human.
    
    Note, seeing the “Others” as non-human is a very human thing to do. I fight it, but it’s damn hard when it’s obvious that the Left doesn’t see me (and people like me) as human.
    
    Paul (Drak Bibliophile) Howard
    
    June 26, 2025 at 11:39 am

Barb Caffrey's Blog