On Saturday, a Member of Congress took to a neighborhood grocery store to visit with her constituents. Unfortnately, this simple exercise in democracy brought death and damage to the Member of Congress, her staff, a Federal Judge and other innocent people.

In the world of governing, when any one person is injured, partisanship quickly fades and all sides join forces to rally for the injured colleague. This has been true when Presidents have been shot or when a City Council Member has been injured. Those that participate in the political process are truly one large family, though frequently feuding.

Many people are talking about the heated rhetoric in politics and blaming this incident on the vitriolic nature of political debate today. As you know, I frequently complain about the deep divide of partisanship and its affect on democracy on this blog and in other writings.

While the rhetoric is spiteful and mean (from both sides) in many cases, it does not encourage death. We must be very cautious in times like these to protect our First Amendment Rights.

In fact, most of the shootings of American leaders in the last 50 years have been the work of mentally ill individuals. The voices they hear in their heads encourage extreme action.

After a few days, the rhetoric will return to normal – Democrats will call for more gun control and Republicans will blame the health care act. They are free to take these actions in our society.

However, wouldn’t it be nice if they took this event as a learning to be more civil with each other and to truly try to address the country’s problems without the name-calling and personal attacks?

In memory of those who lost their lives and those who are seriously injured, let’s tell our elected officials that we want them to tone it down a little and get to work on problem-solving.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost their lives and with those that were seriously injured. May this tragic event serve as another chapter of growth in American democracy.