After simply mentioning the news, and expressing concern for both the intended target and the people in the Post Office who had to handle these packages, I got some whataboutism, both from the postmistress and the gun shop owner.

In my mentioning the package bomb this morning, I only mentioned the list and my concern. I did not make it a political statement.

The postmistress immediately interpreted that as “Doesn’t Trump have the right of free speech?”

I said, sure as far as that goes. But Mr. Trump has a special duty as President of all Americans to be careful in the words he chooses. He represents all of us, both those who voted for him and those who didn’t.

The gun shop owner first questioned if these were real or fake bombs, so I explained that ATF and the FBI had already determined they were real; the bomber seemed to have failed only in using poor-quality batteries.

“Well if they were fake what’s the problem?”

I pointed out it doesn’t matter if a bomb is real or fake (but appears real). It is illegal to mail either one, to which the postmistress chimed in “Yup.”

I then pointed out that any high-profile attack, regardless of who did it or why, tends to spawn local copycats.

I don’t think anyone here would go so far as to send me a mail bomb, but everyone in the county knows I am a Democratic village trustee. If some chowderhead in the local area decides to try the same stunt locally, he’d risk our postmistress and anyone else in the mail stream, our local rural mail delivery clerk, and maybe my elderly neighbour (who’s mailbox is affixed to the same post as mine). Some local guy trying to get famous through terror could injure or kill a whole bunch of people. The same if they sent it to a local radio station or newspaper.

That caused a change in attitude, when I put it in terms of “it could be you.”

I’m sure I didn’t make two brand-new Democratic voters, but I got them to think about this violence a different way (I hope).