JFK Library visitors lament Trump shooting, political divisiveness

DORCHESTER -- The attempted assassination of Donald Trump didn’t draw visitors to the JFK Library Sunday, but the incident was on many minds.

“It’s just crazy to think someone can decide to assassinate a former President,” said Jamie Boazzo.

She and her family live in Pennsylvania -- just one county over from the site of Trump’s Saturday rally.

“My friends were at the event and I was a little concerned they might have been close to where everything happened,” she said. All, it turns out, were safe.

Ray Alvarez wasn’t surprised at the attempt on Trump’s life. “The country’s divided,” he said. “We’ve become a third world country. We’ve gone backwards, not forwards. Instead of leading and being the light to humanity we’ve kind of fallen backwards.”

Alvarez, who was visiting the Library from New Jersey, said the days of centrism are gone.

“It’s no longer a country where the old Democrats and the Old Republicans were more centered,” he said. “Now it’s extremes on both sides. Instead of looking at everyone as being Americans first, it’s this group, that group. It’s this whole philosophy, from my perspective, of divide and conquer. It’s no longer about unity.”

Jason Horn, visiting the Library from Syracuse, New York, agreed.

“We’re so divided I feel like nowadays with things we can’t even talk to each other, have a discussion and have an argument and still be friends afterwards,” Horn said. “We just need to treat people better. We need to love each other more than we do today.”

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