We all would like to think the unthinkable happened Saturday when a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, striking Trump in the top of the right ear, killing one spectator and injuring two others before Secret Service agents killed the shooter.

Sadly, what happened Saturday was all too predictable.

This nation has a long, ugly history of political violence: John F. Kennedy. Robert Kennedy. Martin Luther King Jr. George Wallace. Ronald Reagan. Gabby Giffords. The 2017 attack on a congressional baseball team practice. The Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

And now Trump.

The FBI continues to investigate the assassination attempt and it’s too early to say what may have motivated the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man to try to kill the former president and current Republican presidential nominee.

Anyone who lays blame now is speaking out of turn and causing harm, because those details haven’t yet been filled in.

Yet we can say without question that the rhetoric of modern American politics has grown toxic and injurious, and we — every last American — must do our part to turn down the temperature and begin to unite as Americans first, partisans a distant second.

We understand the stakes are high and this nation and planet face existential threats, from climate change to warring among nuclear-armed nations to threats to democracy to crime in our streets. Those high stakes can make us anxious and fearful, and that anxiety and fear can boil our passions.

For some of us, those boiled passions spill over into hate.

But we also know that Abraham Lincoln spoke a wise truth when he said a nation divided against itself cannot stand.

We weaken ourselves when we work to tear down our political opponents instead of working to find common ground. We hurt ourselves when we hate instead of compromise, when we not only push aside ideas that differ from our own but villainize the people who espouse those different ideas.

And we each rip another thread in the fabric of our nation when we wish harm upon our brothers and sisters simply because they picked a different name at the ballot box.

May Saturday’s tragedy act as a wakeup call to each and every one of us to look across the aisle and see not enemies but fellow Americans who want only to build a better life for themselves and their families, just like we do. That they see a different path to that prosperity does not make them evil or treacherous. It simply makes them different, and we might learn something from them and they might learn something from us if only we could stop hating one another and start striving to understand one another.

Our leaders must set the tone. They must stop caricaturing the other side as monsters and start talking with respect not only for their fellow politicians but for all the hardworking Americans they represent.

But we each must do our part. Stop posting divisive, harmful, hurtful things online. Stop blaming until all the facts are known. Start listening instead of yelling. Start shaking hands instead of shaking fists.

We are grateful the would-be assassin failed at his task. We wish Trump a speedy and full recovery.

We wish for recovery for the injured spectators.

We pray for peace and healing for the family of the spectator who didn’t survive.

And we pray for this nation to heal.