This morning, a senseless act of violence occurred at a baseball practice in Virginia.

House Majority Whip, Steve Scalise, was shot in the hip, along with gun shot wounds suffered by:

Zachary Barth, a member of Rep. Roger Williams staff.

Matt Mika, a lobbyist for Tyson Foods.

David Bailey, U.S. Capitol Police.

Special Agent Crystal Griner, U.S. Capitol Police.

The gunman was from Bellville, Illinois.

The gunman inquired, of a Congressman who left the Charity Ballgame Practice early, if the players on the field were Democrats or Republicans.

Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, gave an impassioned and heartfelt speech to the House of Representatives.  The Speaker said, ‘An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.’

The Speaker also said, ‘There are many memories from this day we will want to forget, and many images we will not want to see again.  But there is one image in particular that this House should keep.  And that is a photo I saw of our Democratic colleagues gathered in prayer this morning after hearing the news.’

‘Rep. Mike Doyle, the manager for the Democratic baseball team, said he invited the Republican team for dinner at the Democratic Club as a first step towards changing the heated political climate’, according to the Washington Times.

Can we meet in the middle…after all of the animosity and rancor and vitriolic rhetoric?

One supreme truth, that we hide from ourselves, is that we are one breath away from eternity.

We have more that unites us than divides us.

We love our children.  We love our families.  Indeed we are one Human Family.

As the author G.K. Chesterton said, ‘We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.’

We really have no choice.