Toning down the rhetoric

“It is time to tone down the rhetoric.” I have heard this on the news from some elected officials. Do you think they or someone could tell President Donald Trump? And a Wisconsin elected official already has asked “the media and Hollywood” to tone down their rhetoric.

When a person in a leadership position makes light of “shoot(ing) somebody,” isn’t he part of the barrage of violent rhetoric? People who utter such incendiary words may not have fired a gun, but they diminish the seriousness and tragedy of doing so.

Remember this statement of Jan. 23, 2016, by Donald J. Trump? “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” Will he ever join the ranks of American statesmen or peacemakers?