The Butler Farm Show is going on as planned. A live music schedule is out, and 4-H members are preparing their barnyard friends for a week of competition and fun.

This as national law enforcement and media continue to scrutinize the area around the farm show grounds, where national history was made on July 13 when a lone gunman was able to pull off an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally.

Even as final preparations are being made for the farm show, news of shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks flying a drone over the grounds in the days before the shooting made headlines.

This follows a visit to the grounds in recent days by a delegation of members of the U.S. House of Representatives, who went so far as to stand on the roof of the building where the shooter was killed by Secret Service agents.

All of this is to say, it’s been two weeks since the incident, and the American news-consuming public continues to see Butler as the place where an assassination attempt was made. It will be historically remembered as such.

Recently, Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy made clear he doesn’t want to see the county and its localities defined by the events of July 13.

While it’s a near certainty the topic came up among the athletes during the Can-Am Police-Fire Games, the important thing is Butler County hosted an international event just last week.

The topic will likely come up during every Butler Farm Show going forward, but the 4-H will continue in competitions and vendors will continue to offer funnel cakes.

We will heal. Hard though it will be, we will move on. The national attention will fade, and we will be known as the place where a former president nearly lost his life.

Much as we might rather it wasn’t.

It was an important moment in history. That’s hard to escape.

The county will be forever defined by it. But the county is many-faceted, and defined by many other things as well.

— RJ