You Are Either With Us or Against Us

 This past April, David Mattai, 55, and Emmanuel Mathews, 80, each took their respective dogs - Bob, a spaniel, and Frankie, a corgi - to their favorite dog park, in Bainbridge Township, Ohio. Neither expected what would happen before they left there that day.

As the New York Times reported about it:

The events that unfolded over the next 20 minutes — pieced 

together from interviews, records and body camera footage — 

would be unusual, but hardly unthinkable in a country where 

political tensions so often combust. Two men, one Black and 

liberal, one white and conservative, would disagree about 

President Trump. Their disagreement would become an 

argument, then a screaming match and then, because both 

men had guns in their cars, a crime.

Jamie Jedlinsky, 70, also at the park with his pit mix, Willow, was the sole witness to what took place. 

Being somewhat friendly with Mr. Mathews, he noticed the Wall Street Journal that Mr. Mathews was reading, with its headline - 

“Trump Grapples With Fears on War” -

and exclaimed in response to it:

“That sucks, don’t it.”

Mr. Mathews disagreed. He began to share his support of the president’s policies on the war in Iran.

Mr. Mattai was listening. He couldn’t help himself and entered the other men’s conversation:

“Trump is the worst president in history.” 

To which Mr. Mathews replied, 

“Trump is the best president in history.”

The intensity and volume of their disagreement spiraled and grew from there.

The accounts of exactly what happened next are in dispute. But what isn’t is that in a quick succession of reactions, both Mr. Mattai and Mr. Mathews shot at one another, with guns they each had in their cars. 

Mr. Mattai was hit, Mr Mathews was not. Mr. Mattei endured two emergency surgeries to repair his injuries. There was an initial question whether or not he would survive.

But both men were arrested and charged with individual crimes against one another. They are both expected to be tried and, if found guilty of their individual charges, could be sentenced to prison for what they did that day. 

The consequences of their reactions to their political differences will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

The witness who tried to break up their confrontation, Mr. Jedlinsky, lamented:

“This country is in a big divide right now. It’s, ‘You’re either with us or against us.’ You’ve got to pick a side and hate the other side.”

After everything it had cost the men involved, he was certain of one thing: 

Nobody’s mind had been changed.

“This country is in a big divide right now. It’s, ‘You’re either with us or against us.’ You’ve got to pick a side and hate the other side.”

There is so much truth Mr. Jedlinsky’s statement.

This story about the conflict and consequences of a personal dispute between two individuals serves as a microcosm of the much larger and even more complex and dangerous realities of political, religious, and cultural divisions all around the world.

As the United States gets closer and closer to the quickly approaching mid-term elections, we hear the rhetoric growing stronger and stronger - and more divisive, nasty, and polarized than each day before. Relationships and lives have been profoundly damaged and even lost, trust has plummeted, and people are suffering because of the inability of so many to work together for the common good.

We remember on this very day what happened, horrifically, on October 7, 2023:

The Hamas Invasion of Israel, where - at least 1,195 people were killed, 251 people were taken captive to the Gaza Strip, and more than 3,400 people were wounded.

The subsequent war on Gaza and the wider conflict over the last three years, where - at least 77,036 people were killed across Gaza and the West Bank, more than 174,000 people were wounded, and hundreds to thousands of additional indirect or famine-related deaths occurred.

The news is filled with reports about ongoing and intractable wars and conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Myanmar, and on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, to name some of the more virulent disputes, in which too many have died, been gravely injured, been displaced, been rendered life-threateningly vulnerable, or been forever traumatized.

"You're either with us or against us” is a binary construct that is pitting life against life and must surely be changed to save lives and relationships all around the world. We need it to change for all of us to survive and ultimately to thrive, which we believe is what we all deserve in this life we are given.