How Not to Respond to a National Tragedy

An audio transcript of Dush’s remarks did not include any sympathy for the dead, nor was there any expression of support for Pennsylvania’s Asian-American community, which has found itself on the receiving end of despicable acts of hate. He at least had the presence of mind to argue for the need for a “good, solid dialogue,” presumably about race-relations. Still, to call that a missed opportunity is an understatement.

Instead, Dush chided for Saval for being, in his view, politically divisive, and patronizingly told him that “We need to make sure that we’ve got the facts before we go spewing the types of things that I’ve been hearing of late.”

A brown-skinned Pennsylvanian pointing out violence against other brown-skinned Pennsylvanians isn’t “spewing” anything. He’s reflecting his own lived experience, and the lived experience of everyone who looks like him as they try to find their way through a society that still has a long way to go to live up to its founding ideals.

It’s an offense against decency that eight people, most of them women, are dead. It’s an offense against our collective humanity that the majority of them are members of a minority now enduring violent hate.

It’s an outrage that easily should have transcended party lines and led to a moment of unity that some crave they want so badly.

Dush had an opportunity to really listen, and profit, from his colleague on the other side of the aisle. The fact that that didn’t happen just compounds the tragedy.

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An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.