Posted by
Bill Crawford on Saturday, January 08, 2011 9:55:04 PM
And so we are all violated. Congressman Giffords, from CD 8 in Arizona, was holding a public meeting with her constituents when a barely grown nutjob shot her in the head at close range. To complete his own mental picture, he then took out a few other people, including a little girl and a Federal Judge and then sprayed the crowd with gunfire.
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Thank God Ms. Giffords is starting to look like she will come through this. We should all mourn the dead, pray for their families and ask what we can do to help, and leave it at that. The Conressman's distraught father, when asked who might have it in for her, answered, "The whole tea party". Given what he is going through, that is to be forgiven.
But not the rest of the political world. The sun hadn't even set on the day of tragedy when the loons were coming out thick and fast, connecting the troubled lad's act with the tea party, and Sarah Palin and her political action committee.
I should not be surprised at any of this. The Columbine shootings a decade ago marked the last time I was able to bring up the defense of the Second Amendment as a legitimate idea in places like New York. Since then, fuses have grown shorter and certain people have grown more intolerant. The notion that they would use a tragedy like this as an opportunity for burping out talking points, and the speed with which they did are part of the new reality of contemporary political dialogue.
Fortunately, I am a multi-tasker. I have two hands. One can be outstretched in sympathy for the families of all the victims. The other one can be used to flip the bird of respect to all those who can't manage to maintain their dignity for even one day.
The lesson that will have be taught from this is that neither end of the active political spectrum will begin to tolerate this as some sort of political dissent. The man was taken down by bystanders in the crowd. Anybody else who tries it now will get the same treatment, only as soon as they reach in their jacket. It's a rough world, and we all have to adjust.