SOMEONE SHOOTS TRUMP IN MY DAD’S HOMETOWN — WILL WE MAKE IT TO NOV. 5?

People want to kill Donald Trump while the language fails Joe Biden, making us wonder if America even will have a President and whether our parents have led a much better existence than the rest of us

     My father lives in Butler, Pa. He does not like Donald Trump. On cue, minutes after the New York Times published a photo of the former President with blood across his right ear and cheek, I contacted him for immediacy. Was he at the rally? At 92?

     His wife texted me, from their home about six miles from a scene where a suspected shooter of Trump was killed Saturday by the Secret Service. “Trump rally at Butler Farm Show grounds. We are fine and very quiet here,” she wrote.

     Shots were fired at an event where attendees enter through metal detectors, their belongings supposedly searched for weapons. It didn’t prevent a gunman from firing, an assassination attempt, which forced Trump to duck with blood on his face. He rose his fist, shouted at the crowd and was escorted into his motorcade, which took him to a helicopter. Hours later, he spoke to America online, wobbled but unscathed from an ear gash caused by multiple shots “toward the stage from an elevated position outside the rally venue,” said a Secret Service spokesman.

     Trump wrote on social media: “I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead. I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

     God bless what?

     This is where we are as a tortured nation with election night still more than three months away. Trump envisions a return to the White House though people want to kill him. Joe Biden wants to be re-elected despite destroying the language and confusing Trump and Kamala Harris, in addition to Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. I am not certain what happens next. Is it possible neither man survives to Nov. 5? Is Harris ready? No, she hasn’t said anything noteworthy in four years. Is Gavin Newsom ready? No, he can’t run California. Is another Republican ready?

     When the world is in tatters, I walked down the street in Los Angeles to a restaurant. Atla is run by a famous Mexican chef, Enrique Olvera, and I walked in and ordered a soft drink. I told a server that Trump was shot. He was surprised but didn’t say much. A man beside me, an apparent agent, was speaking to an actress about films they might make in Napa. When I asked a bartender about Trump, she just shrugged, while the agent and actress talked about the French Laundry dining experience — where Newsom was seen attending a 2020 party during a coronavirus surge. A woman across the way looked at her phone, went to the bathroom and resumed her meal.

     Walking down a busy street in tourist season, there was no commotion about Trump. Did people know? Did they care? They shopped for shoes and ate ice cream while the homeless looked for help. Are Americans no longer fazed by any political disruption? An assassination? After a debate debacle? Go out for a quesadilla and a spicy margarita.

     “Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said. “It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”

     He referred to Trump as “Donald.”

     My father is doing well. My parents had happier lives, I believe, than the rest of us will.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.