BOSTON — The Minnesota House Speaker, Lisa Demuth, encouraged an audience of her legislative peers at a national convention to work at disagreeing without being disagreeable. That, said Demuth, was her take-away from the assassination of her friend and veteran state legislator Melissa Horman in June. “In our grief, I hope everyone in political leadership moving forward — everyone elected to serve their communities in any way — will commit to a better kind of politics, rooted in respect and modeled by my friend Melissa Hortman,” Demuth said. She was in a delegation of 50 Minnesota lawmakers and staff at the National Conference of State Legislatures. The conference had 6,500 delegates. On the agenda too was State Minnesota state Senator John Hoffman, who himself was wounded by the assassin the same night that Hortman was killed. From home where he’s still recovering, Hoffman said on a video hook-up:

“What happened in Minnesota on June 14 was awful and tragic and will impact me and my family forever. But as a Minnesotan and as an American, I do know this, we can’t let the evil of that night win and we must redouble our efforts and reclaim the reason we are all public servants.”

Hoffman cautioned against becoming subsumed in a “creeping erosion of public trust, not just in institutions, but in each other.” On the podium in person with Demuth, was Minnesota Senate majority leader Erin Murphy: “I’ve heard many suggest that in response to the evil that visited us we should turn down the vitriol in our rhetoric. A lot of America would appreciate that. I know Melissa would.”