This Precarious Life

In the wake of the near assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally, a large number of Americans have wondered if he survived solely “by the grace of God.” Indeed, many believe that the Almighty Himself must have altered the direction of the assassin’s bullet so that it grazed Mr. Trump’s ear instead of hitting his head.

But if we accept this and are logically consistent, do we not also have to believe that God guided the assassin’s bullet that killed the devoted father shielding his wife and children at the event, as well as the bullets seriously wounding two other men? Or that He simply did not care about them?

I think the July 13 assassination attempt is all the more disturbing because it highlights so starkly just how huge a role luck plays in our lives. It is sobering to realize that, no matter how good or careful we think we are, very often we have no control over whether we get terminal cancer, crippled or killed in a car wreck, or even shot.

I suspect the major novelist Norman Mailer was right that this is why we prefer conspiracy theories to make sense of senseless tragedies. So instead of a total loser like Lee Harvey Oswald being able to kill President John Kennedy and change history all by himself, we much prefer to believe that only a massive cabal involving the CIA, our military-industrial complex, the Mafia, the Russians, or the Cubans could have managed such a massively consequential crime.

Now, despite clear evidence of recent rank incompetence at the U.S. Secret Service, we are sorely tempted to believe that last month’s extremely close call with the GOP presidential nominee had to be the result of a well-coordinated plot involving the CIA, other government officials, and/or even the Secret Service – anything but that awkward and lonely assassin barely out of his teens acting by himself. Yet almost every shooter of an American president has been an utter failure who somehow single-handedly pulled off what was assumed to be almost impossible.

In 1835, President Andrew Jackson survived an assassination attempt by a deranged man convinced he was a 15th century English king. In 1881, President James Garfield was murdered by a lone gunman and likely schizophrenic whose life had been a complete catastrophe. In 1901, President William McKinley was shot to death by an unemployed socialist-anarchist. In 1963 President Kennedy was cut down by a mentally ill high school dropout who had become a communist. And in 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot by an insane loner hoping to impress a famous actress he had not even met.

The assassins of other American public figures were equally pathetic losers acting alone. In 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by an elementary school dropout and career petty criminal. Also that year, U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was slain by a miserably angry Palestinian college dropout and failed horse jockey. In 1972, Alabama Governor and Democratic presidential hopeful George Wallace was shot and paralyzed by a mentally disturbed tech school dropout. And in 1980, the great Beatle John Lennon was assassinated by a jobless psychotic.

So should we really be shocked that former President Trump was almost taken out by a 20-year-old nursing home dishwasher with body odor? Considering the pitiful profiles of almost all major American political assassins (only President Abraham Lincoln’s killer, the very successful actor John Wilkes Booth, was the exception – and Lincoln’s murder was a conspiracy), why should we expect otherwise?

However disruptive to our desire for public order, there is much incompetence and failure throughout all societies, including even at elite government agencies like the Secret Service. To be fair, bodyguards can successfully protect a president in 999 out of 1,000 public appearances, but we will only remember that one failure; nor will we ever know of all the other attempts on leaders’ lives that were thankfully thwarted by law enforcement.

Recalling the many times I have been blessed to meet famous folks I admired, most had no security. How chillingly easy it would have been for an evil person to attack them. Perhaps we are actually fortunate there have not been far more such tragedies. It might also be instructive just to remind ourselves that this is a deadly dangerous world which none of us will survive.

If not even the best-guarded people on the planet can always be protected from the most pathetic of murderous lunatic losers, then perhaps each of us should resolve all the more to make every effort to reach our fullest potential, and as soon as we can, precisely because this life is so precarious, brief, and therefore precious. As the Bible instructs, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time” (Ephesians 5:15-16).