Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who reads mystery novels. I just can't imagine what would drive someone to take a gun and shoot into a crowd. That is completely a totally messed up. The stories coming from Arizona are so sad I can only watch a little bit of the news at a time or I completely break down.
Fortunately, I have political hacks to take me to the other extreme, boiling mad. The bodies weren't even cold - heck we were still getting conflicting reports about whether Congresswoman Giffords, the main target, was alive or not - when Liberals started using this as an opportunity to blame Palin. Okay, so she had this woman in her sights for the last election. Really? That's what led this guy to pick up a gun and kill six people?
As it turns out, that's not the case. This man is a seriously sick guy who needed help. I will be shocked at this point if Palin had more than a passing presence in his world.
But that hasn't stopped some in the media. They seem insistent on blaming her and talk radio for driving the hateful rhetoric in this country. Right. And all those people wishing Bush would die? All those who have dreamed about killing Palin? The list of hate coming from the left could go on and on. In fact, it does.
What I love most are the pieces I was reading on Sunday that basically said, "We know this guy is a nut job, but that doesn't mean that Palin is any less responsible." Never let the facts get in the way of a chance to attack your opponent.
And that's what really bothers me most about this whole thing. On Saturday, when we should be finding out facts, praying for those affected, and mourning as a nation, instead we were treated to hateful rhetoric from those who wanted to use this for political gain.
Not to mention the idea of personal responsibility. Back in the 90's when conservatives wanted to tone down movies and violent video games, we were preached to on the left about personal responsibility. Now that they can score points against the right, they'll apply personal responsibility to Palin and talk radio but not to those who actually pulled the trigger.
Much has been written about this by those better able to do so than me. I suggest you take a look around and think critically about what you are reading. To me, this paragraph from Glenn Reynolds best sums up what I saw this weekend:
To be clear, if you're using this event to criticize the "rhetoric" of Mrs. Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you're either: (a) asserting a connection between the "rhetoric" and the shooting, which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie; or (b) you're not, in which case you're just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible. Which is it?
I hope everyone involved thinks long and hard about that before they try to make political points from a horrific tragedy again. (Yeah, I live in a fantasy world.)
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