The following column was published by the Lapeer County Press on Saturday, September 20

On a September morning in 2001, our country came together in the face of immense tragedy.

We suffered our worst attack since Pearl Harbor, and nearly 3,000 innocent people were killed in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. This included dozens of Michigan residents. Each year as this day approaches, I take time to remember the victims, the heroes who ran toward danger and into smoke-filled buildings, and the families whose lives were forever changed.

The Michigan House recently held a special ceremony in remembrance of the 9/11 attacks. The annual ceremony honors those victims as well as first responders and members of the military from Michigan, including those who have recently died in the line of duty. Names of fallen first responders and military heroes are read by Republican and Democrat legislators before the House chamber. It is a moving and unifying moment at our state Capitol where we put our differences aside and honor what makes us great as Americans.

When selfless people at the World Trade Center put their own lives in peril to help others down flights of stairs so they could get out safely, no one cared about a particular person’s political views. When the heroes on United Flight 93 were plotting to storm the cockpit and overtake hijackers who were attempting to carry out another attack, there wasn’t a show of hands on who was a Republican and who was a Democrat.

They were Americans, united as one.

In recent months, there has been a spike in politically motivated violence, and I am mourning what I perceive is the death of the American Ideal that I possessed. I have been taught the concepts of American exceptionalism, societal acceptance, and a system of government where the majority rules but the minority still has rights. As a whole, that society accepted people who are different or think differently than themselves.

In my lifetime, I have observed an attack on American soil on Sept. 11, 2001. I have seen a complete character assassination on a sitting president, individuals convicted of conspiracy to kidnap our governor, an attempted assassination on members of Congress while they were at a softball practice, an assassination of elected legislators in Minnesota and the subsequent revelation that some Michigan political figures and legislators were on the attacker’s hit list, and the recent public killing of an influential national figure and political activist in Charlie Kirk.

Just in the past few days, bomb threats were made to our state’s lieutenant governor, as well as a sitting state Senator. These are unacceptable, escalatory acts that have no place in our society, let alone the political realm. They present a dangerous erosion of the ideals we all hold dear.

As an elected legislator, I am working to go back to a time where we can freely debate the merits of an idea or bill. We can talk about how it affects our individual districts and communities. We can debate fiercely the proposals before us on the merits of those proposals without the fear of intimidation or violence. It is imperative that our society return to the values of respecting our neighbors and fellow communities.

We must focus on the problems we are trying to solve rather than the personality or individual we are opposing. We must remember that disagreements over ideas is what makes our country great, and that taking those same disagreements to a personal level dehumanizes and destroys constructive dialogue.