When President Obama announced last night in Arizona that "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time," tears began to stream from mine.
Then I wished for Sarah Palin to open her eyes, and her heart, because yesterday was a day of healing.
The president saw that clearly and responded with true leadership and uplifting words at the memorial for the victims of the Arizona massacre.
When President Obama announced last night in Arizona that "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time," tears began to stream from mine.
Then I wished for Sarah Palin to open her eyes, and her heart, because yesterday was a day of healing.
The president saw that clearly and responded with true leadership and uplifting words at the memorial for the victims of the Arizona massacre.
But ricochets from Tucson appear to have winged the right's most influential dividers (Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly), so loud is the self-righteous howling about how it's not their fault and how dare you blame them.
The modern talk-radio noise machine is an amazing invention -- its operators able to transform calls for civility and national self-reflection into accusations of murder. They're the true victims, you see. And they're not gonna stand for it. Stay tuned. Coming next: More angry and hateful words to make the divide wider.
Meanwhile, Gabby Giffords' words -- spoken almost cheerily in the video you have probably seen -- hang heavy in the air. (March 2010) "We're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but ... the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they've got to realize there are consequences to that action."
Then yesterday, for the first time since the Tucson tragedy, Sarah took her turn -- speaking directly to real America in "A Very Special Episode of Sarah Palin's Facebook Page."
For four days after the massacre -- as a high-pressure zone of rhetoric stormed around her now-infamous bullseye map -- the normally trigger-happy Palin somehow managed not to blurt out or tweet anything defensive, aggressive, awkward, vapid or vengeful.
However, if you'd hoped Palin was moved by the shooting of a public servant she had literally targeted or by Rep. Giffords' now-prophetic words and was engaged in quiet reflection, you would be disappointed.
She was reloading. Getting ready to fire off her tacky infomercial blasting her critics for "blood libel."
Palin invoked her First and Second Amendment rights to shoot herself in the foot -- both by choosing the explosive term "blood libel" to slam folks who would suggest her bullseye map might have real-life consequences (folks like Gabby Giffords) and by releasing, hours before the memorial honoring the victims, a self-serving video in which she casts herself as victim.
In sharp contrast to the voices always aiming to divide, President Obama spoke with passion about how the victims are part of our family, "the American family -- 300 million strong!"
"What we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other," said the president, challenging us to rise above the pain and polarization, reminding that "our hopes and dreams are bound together."
The guy whom Palin accused of being so anti-American that he would "pal around with terrorists" issued an eloquent, much-needed call for civility -- not because a lack of it caused this tragedy, but because it is right. Because "a more civil and honest discourse" is vital to the health of our American democracy.
Not bad oratory for a socialist, Nazi, foreign-born commie.
It was a day of healing -- a day to open minds and hearts by appealing to America's better angels.
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See illustrated version at The Daily Palin.