It has been a day since the shooting in Tucson, I have listened to many newscasts and read many articles about who created this atmosphere the left or the right, and when I stop to think about it, we ALL did it. Everyone who is passionate about their politics have been helping to create the current vitriolic hate and garbage spewing from Faux news, the radio talking heads, MSNBC, CNN the coverage of the TEA Party and creation of the it by Faux news and the Koch Brothers and Dick Armey and his astroturfing group, the 2nd Amendment remedies of Sharon Angle, the targets placed on maps showing which congressional districts were to be emphasized. Nasty comments on blogs which have been deleted over the past 30 hours, we saw Blue Boy write a heartfelt apology to this community, I watched Keith Olberman apologize for his over the top verbal attacks, which ones I don't know, KO is not as bad as most on other networks but all words have meaning, even these.
I grew up as a child during one of the worst periods in America history for political assassinations from John F. Kennedy thru Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, George Wallace being shot, Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, I think but this one attempt was a decade or nearly two decades removed from the attempt on George Wallace, I think it is safe to say the sixties was the deadliest decade on record, in the United States.
Killing political opposition is a long held custom around the world, it is part of the reason we went into Iraq as Saddam Hussein was killing Kurds and Shiites, at least that was one of the many reasons that President Bush eventually turned to in order to justify the war we are now ending in that nation, with the return of Muqtada Sadr I have a funny feeling the blood shed in that nation is going to increase again, hopefully he will keep his "followers" in the house until we get the rest of our troops out of there.
I am really hoping that what happened in Tucson is not the start of another bad decade, I am really hoping that many people wake up and realize what is the effect of this toxic environment and that the fact that most people realize it is just "political theater" for 99% of the people listening, but then there are the one percenter's who think that they need to do something to "take out" the problem. The mentally unbalanced listen to the "hate speech" and it feeds their mental problems and they "see" a way to correct the "problem" as they see it. Timothy McVeigh, and Jared Lee Loughner, Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, Sirhan Sirhan, all found a way to make their "statements" and the entire nation suffered for it.
We can not afford to provide Secret Service protection to all elected officials, and I don't think anyone even wants to see that happen, how will the nation function if Congressmen and women are separated from the "public"? Passing new gun laws is not the solution, it would not have stopped the incident in Tucson yesterday from happening, determined people will find a way to fulfill their goal, if they are set on making this type of "statement". I do admit I think it is reprehensible to see people at political rallies with weapons, rifles, pistols or shotguns, yes the 2nd Amendment does give them the right to carry but why do it? You have the right to jump off Hoover Dam but you shouldn't do it.
I know this is kind of silly but I ask everyone from Sarah Palin, to all political commentators, on the radio and television to get a picture of a 9 year old girl named Christina Taylor Green her picture and the other victims are here and put it on your desks near your computer and before you hit the send button stop, take a look at that picture of her and ask yourself, "do I really want to say this"? Will another young child die as a result of this statement, and can I possibly say what I want, in a less offensive manner?
There is nothing wrong in having an opposite opinion and voicing it, it is another thing to put it in terms that can be construed as a call to arms, 2nd amendment remedies, reload, etc, let's blow this mess up, lets target this person etc, I could go on all night, anyone with common sense should understand what I am saying.
I have been seeing death since I was a 7 year old when JFK was assassinated, I watched death in Korea as a young man in the Army, the deaths in Vietnam during the 60s and 70s. The first Gulf War, the wars ongoing now, and lastly and not the least the incident in Tucson yesterday, my heart is heavy with pain tonight, and it is hard for my brain to try and make sense out of this.
All I ask is to stop and think before we say and type things that may cause mentally unbalanced people to take what we say and run with it, when we did not mean to actually cause anyone physical harm, while we may not wish to cause harm, someone else's fuse may only need the words that we say or type to put them over the edge, and we can't go thru life saying I wish I hadn't said it that way, that isn't what I meant.
Congress will spend this week discussing this and I hope they do not use this as an excuse to try and turn this nation into a "police state" no one will win, and things will only get worse. Can we dial it back a bit? How many 9 year old girls have to die, before we stop the insane killing?
I think one to many has already died, Christine Green was born on one of the worst days in this nations history, 9-11-2001, she died in an attempted political assassination of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, born in one tragedy and died in another. That is a really sad book ends for her life, can we make her life really mean something and use it to tone down the hate speech?
Please for all the children of the United States of America, dial it back