Nation needs to disarm politics of hate

There’s no crying in baseball. Except for Wednesday.

What happened on a ball field in Alexandria, Va., negated the famous line uttered by Tom Hanks’ grizzled manager in the Hollywood tome, “A League of Their Own.”

This is what happens when partisan differences go beyond bickering, beyond protests, beyond name-calling.

This is what happens when partisanship goes on steroids.

An early-morning baseball practice is interrupted by something that should be foreign to us, but is becoming all too commonplace.

It is the ugly “pop-poppop” of gunfire. And it – along with the blind politics of hate that apparently stoked it – is tearing this country apart.

What makes what happened Wednesday even more troubling is that this was not just any baseball practice.

These were Republican members of Congress and some of their aides, sharpening their skills for the annual charity game that pits GOP legislators vs. their Dem counterparts.

The fact that these were Republicans was not happenstance.

It appears the gunman who opened fire on the field - critically wounding House GOP Whip Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and wounding four others - was targeting them. Before opening fire, he inquired as to which party they represented.

It was only the heroic action of Capitol police, part of the security detail assigned to Scalise, in confronting and taking down the gunman, that averted a massacre.

Healing the wounds will take a little longer.

Ironically, two congressmen from our area were supposed to be on that field, but by happenstance were not, perhaps saving them from the gunman’s wrath as well.

Rep. Pat Meehan, R-7th Dist., a pitcher for the GOP team, was supposed to be at the practice.

In fact he was on the field throwing the morning before, so he skipped this practice for a breakfast engagement on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Ryan Costello, R-6th Dist., missed his ride by a few minutes.

He likely would have been at shortstop, a few steps from Scalise, who was at second base when the gunfire broke out.

The gunman is believed to have been a Bernie Sanders supporter. He followed a Facebook page titled “Terminate the Republican Party.”

This is not about Left. Or Right. Not conservative or liberal. Not Democrats or Republicans.

This is about America. The gunfire we’ve become immune to as it takes a horrific toll on so many cities and communities still manages to jar our psyches when it breaks out where it is least expected, on a ball field in Alexandria, Va., across the river from the nation’s Capitol, and involving our duly elected representatives.

We didn’t get to this point overnight.

The divisions that have fractured the nation’s politics have been doing a slow boil for some time. Both sides of the political aisle are at fault. This is not a Republican trait; Democrats are certainly not without blame. This is an American tragedy.

For a few hours after yesterday’s shooting, some of that political discord dissolved. Many in Washington reached across the aisle and embraced each other. Some prayed. Others offered hugs.

Civility reigned. At least for a few hours.

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan led the charge, noting that “an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

In fact, it is an attack on the roots of democracy, the underpinning of our great experiment in government. Will it last?

That person across the aisle is not the enemy, he or she is a person who may have different beliefs than you do, or believe the way forward is different than the one you espouse.

That is not a call to violence.

That is a call for discussion. For engagement. For the civic process. That is our challenge. We can unite behind the pillars that have kept us on good stead for 241 years, or descend into the politics of hate.