It was a number of years ago when I was in the book signing line to meet former first lady Laura Bush.
I fell into conversation with a nice gentleman just behind me when, suddenly, two big men in suits came to him, identifying themselves as federal agents and asked him to come with them. When he returned he was ashen. He said the two agents told him he had a pocketknife, and they were going to confiscate it until the event was done. We puzzled over this since there wasn’t a magnetometer that we saw when we came in.
My new friend said his pocketknife was less than 3 inches long.
But this shows how serious the U.S. Secret Service takes their job and what a dangerous world we live in.
We generally remember four U.S. presidents who were assassinated but sometimes overlook the fact that three others were wounded by would-be assassins.
It was one year ago that former President Trump was en route to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. The convention convened on Monday morning, but the previous Saturday he was the victim of an assassin's attack in Butler, Penn. There were some anxious moments until we learned that his wounds were not particularly serious, though they certainly were for the volunteer firefighter who was killed and several others who were wounded.
It's interesting that another former president on the campaign trail suffered a horrific experience in Milwaukee.
President Teddy Roosevelt served almost a complete term after the death of William McKinley, then was elected to a term on his own. Shortly thereafter he declared he wouldn’t seek a rightful second term. He soon regretted his declaration since he didn’t like the policies of his chosen successor, William Howard Taft. The GOP stuck with Taft in renomination, so Roosevelt founded the Bull Moose party and ran independently.
TR left the Milwaukee hotel on October 14, 1912, to give a speech when he was struck by an assassin's bullet at close range.
Fortunately, Roosevelt had 50 pages of speech notes folded in his jacket pocket plus a metal spectacle case that slowed the bullet. He insisted on going to the event where he spoke for an hour and a half before surrendering to his doctors and spending a week in the hospital. The bullet remained in his chest the rest of his life.
In America we believe in the ballot, not the bullet. Debate is the norm, not political violence.
Christians have the added responsibility of praying for “kings and all those in authority” over us, (no matter their political affiliations).
We pray for safety for our nation's leaders and peace in our land. (1 Timothy 2: 1-2).
