BY DR. GLENN MOLLETTE
Cole Thoms Allen recently tried to kill President Donald Trump. The 31-year-old from Torrance, California, has been charged with attempted assassination, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence and illegally transporting firearms and ammunition across state lines.
Cole rode Amtrak all the way from California to check into the Washington Hilton Hotel, where he stayed three nights plotting his attempt to kill.
Fortunately, law enforcement was able to stop Allen, but not before he wounded one Secret Service officer, who survived because he was wearing a bullet-resistant vest.
Allen now becomes the third assailant who has attempted to kill President Trump. The other two names have been mentioned enough, and I regret even mentioning Allen’s. I suppose assassins will always have their names printed across the country and probably most of the world. They will be remembered throughout history.
Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wilkes Booth and others who have made attempts or have been successful at killing high-profile people gain worldwide attention.
Tragically, the target does not have to be the president of the United States.
Too many mentally ill people have carried out school shootings or acts of public violence and had their names smeared all over television and throughout the media.
I suppose it will never stop. Most of the world feels like they have the right to know everything. The media makes huge sums of money telling people everything. The bad news is what sells. If people are killed or there is an attempted assassination, then we all rush to the television or our news feeds on our phones. Someone who prepares food for hungry school kids after school is not news; it is just a good person living their daily life.
Living daily life and doing good things are what most everyday people are doing. We do not hear about the policeman who spent most of his day helping a stranded motorist. We do not hear about the mother who was up all night with a sick child. We do not read about the grandparents who have stepped in to raise children because something bad happened to their parents. We do not hear about the schoolteacher who earns little but often covers the cost of school supplies for an entire class out of her own pocket. The list of everyday people doing everyday life is endless. Most will live valiant lives and die quietly. You will never know very much about them.
There surely is a place and time reserved somewhere in eternity when the people who have lived good, quiet lives and did their best will hear their names called and a “well done, good and faithful servant.”
In the meantime, in this life, we have mentally ill people who are so crazed that they will attempt heinous acts to have their sick manifestos read on national television. Maybe we could start identifying all such people by some general name like Deranged Idiot 101, Deranged Idiot 102 and so on. Somehow we have to cease promoting the national fame/notoriety associated with such evil acts.
Dr. Glenn Mollette is read in all 50 states. He is also the author of numerous books and can be heard each weekday morning on XM Radio 131.