MY KNEE-JERK reaction upon hearing of the horrendous event in Tucson was that I hoped the shooter wasn't an illegal immigrant or an African-American. In the culture that destroys human minds, it's easy to think that way to avoid almost certain further violence in rhetoric - or worse. Fortunately the color of the young man's skin matched that of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, the latter of whom once posted U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' congressional district in crosshairs on her Facebook. Palin's aides now say the crosshairs were "surveyor's symbols" and not targets even though she urged her readers to "reload."
Compare that to the poignant response of Arizona's Pima County Sheriff, Clarence
Dupnik, as he reacted in stunned sadness in the wake of the massacre. You've probably read it or watched it on TV, but some of it is worth repeating:
"When you look at the unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
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9 comments:
Last week, if you asked 100 people to draw a surveyors mark, how many could have done so? Ask that same 100 people to draw a rifle's crosshair and I have to believe the number able to do that jumps significantly.
Why would Palin's folks use a symbol that so few are familiar with ? Because they knew they intended in spite of their recent laughable explanation.
Monday morning Fox and Friends were doing the expected scrambling to point any responsibility away from their network and Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, et al. Had to tune in to see if they would. They didn't let me down.
The fact that the left is politicizing this tragedy is an absolute disgrace.
The truth is that the shooter was a mentally deranged lunatic. He was not a member of the Tea Party nor was he a Sarah Palin supporter. He did not espouse conservative ideology nor did he listen to Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck. Yet everyone from MSNBC to Think Progress to the sheriff in the case have tried to create links to the shooter that simply do not exist.
Is demonizing conservatives really so important to the left that they have to exploit this tragedy?
Anonymous,
What on earth are you talking about? What do Beck, O'Reilly, and Limbaugh have to do with the alleged shooter?
Seriously, stop with the misinformation.........
Palin, Beck, Limbaugh etc may not have pulled the trigger but they gave ammunition to the nut cases out there. I am surprise it hasn't happen sooner.
FoxNews,
I never said Beck, Limbaugh, O'Reilly had anything to do with the shooter. I said Fox News was making sure their hosts weren't being seen as having any connection to him.
FoxNews,
Oh yeah, and the Right and Fox News NEVER politicize anything, right?
I knew this would flush FNF84 out of the brush.
So is it politicizing the story by mentioning the incident where a protester at a previous Giffords talk, jumped up and down so much while waving a "Don't Tread on Me" sign, that the pistol under his jacket fell out of his shoulder holster and hit the pavement?
Can you connect those dots FNF84 ? How comfortable would you be, speaking at a rally with perhaps your family by your side, saying the things you say here (safely and anonymously by the way ), knowing that that some of your political enemies were just feet away from you were angry and armed?
Mencken,
Your giving Fakenewsfan too much credit. You asking him to engage in some independent and critical thinking. He has repeatedly demonstrated all the characteristics of a right wing Authoritarian and as such he must wait for instructions on how to think about ANY political issue. You are right about one thing, the event in Arizona was political enough for him to crawl out from under his rock.
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