The day after Thanksgiving’s headline is not going to be about the Black Friday rush to buy bargains but rather the hate and lack of truth that is plaguing our politics. The Headline tomorrow morning will read, ” A Planned Parenthood clinic attacked in Colorado. The sub-headline will read at least 9 people were wounded.

This attack took place at a location where women get advise for women’s health care issues and where an occasional abortion takes place. The violence could have been avoided if a political party in their desperation for victory had not set our citizens against one another, by broadcasting misleading information in a video purporting to show a Planned Parenthood clinic selling body parts. The video was a lie, it never happened. But the damage was done by ratcheting up the emotion regarding the emotional issue of abortions.

Today was a black Friday alright but not because people shopped until they dropped but because another incident of violence has occurred in what should be a civil society, our nation of villages, towns and cities. A civil society should be a place where our citizens live, where each person is respected and the laws of men as expressed through centuries of common law are followed. The men and women of our nation need to respect the laws of the land as expressed by our Constitution and whose meaning is articulated by our courts.

We can not have a civil society if we have a political party that has no interest in having a land of laws. No political party should be allowed to express such inflammatory lies told about an organization for political gain. There should be negative consequences for such reckless behavior. Any group who is willing to risk our civil society by continually lying and setting each citizen against the other is not worth our respect or our votes.

This has been the work of the Republican Party, and the violence and handiwork of the person responsible today at the Planned Parenthood facility should have been anticipated.  When reckless acts and statements are made by a political party, somebody might actually believe what has been said and as a result acted out in violence as a consequence of such reckless statements being made. One should have anticipated what happened today. If you purport something to be true when you know it is not true why should you be surprised at what comes next. This video was gruesome and graphic. It made people think that body parts were being sold by Planned Parenthood. Free speech is not free when you knowingly lie and people are hurt as a result. This type of politics is irresponsible, malicious and dangerous to the public health and well being of our people by making people believe that such acts of barbarism were actually taking place. Such lies are accepted as being okay but they are not. A citizen actually might believe the lie and this is what we get in response to the emotions of the public being so inflamed by lies and demagogues.

The sordid campaign of 2016, has already seen and heard too much, that is harmful to the body politic. The Planned Parenthood video is just one example. During this campaign for the Presidency we have heard vulgar and rude comments made about Latinos, about people of color and individuals who believe in a different religion. Fear and hate are the bywords of several candidates particularly Donald Trump. His campaign seems to look the other way if a person of color is in the audience and the crowd roughs the person up. In the old days one might surmise that race baiting is going on. These occurrences remind one of what the Brown Shirts did at Hitler rallies.  At least one Republican candidate for President, John Kasich has spoken out and called Trump out for what he truly represents. But where are the other leaders of the Republican Party? Why are they not repudiating what is going on? Republicans are woefully lacking in courage to not stand up for what is right and what is wrong in our world of politics. There is a reason why certain things are not said, and why things are politically incorrect to say and do. Just because someone is a candidate who boldly says what no one else will say does not make that person a good candidate, it just makes that person rude and not a fit person to be President.

If our campaign is so drenched with expediency with one political party expecting to gain votes by such horrible behavior and decorum , we should expect more Black Fridays. We can only hope that too much damage will not be done to our body politic, and that our nation made up of a quilt of many colors will have the strength to survive, whole and indivisible.