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mandolin(For those who haven't read the news yet, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and at least a dozen other people were shot in Tucson this afternoon.)
Naturally, there's been plenty of speculation and fingerpointing in the comments from both sides. Some blame Sarah Palin, some have been digging up wording from old GOP event calendars from June as evidence this was "planned," and one comment I saw speculated that some far-left nutjob did this to frame the Republicans and the Tea Party. Never mind that we don't know a damned thing about the shooter yet. Never mind that the finger-pointing is not helping.
Only a few people have pointed out something that REALLY bothers me:
Rep. Giffords was at that grocery store hosting the first "Congress on Your Corner" event of her term, in which she went out and talked to her constituents in small groups. (Political theater or not, you don't see this very much nowadays and she was making an effort.) You know, instead of hiding in her office and letting interns respond to letters and calls and only talking to lobbyists and people who give her campaign thousands of dollars. For those efforts, she got shot.
Who wants to bet that after this, the others on the Hill won't want to "risk" any more of these type of events? Even though this country needs the politicians to actually connect to the people who voted them in?
We can speculate all we want, blame whoever we want, but that doesn't really change the potential implications here.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of everyone that sick bastard shot. This is a tragedy.
And that's all I have to say on this. I'm going to close all the news sites down for a while and go find my sketchbook.
EDIT: Oh, yeah. This was supposed to be a public post. When I wrote it, no info about the shooter had been released, so I am leaving the above as-is. I do think we need to tone down the political vitriol, and when people try to frame this nutjob as representative of whatever political party they oppose, it's only adding fuel to the fire.
Naturally, there's been plenty of speculation and fingerpointing in the comments from both sides. Some blame Sarah Palin, some have been digging up wording from old GOP event calendars from June as evidence this was "planned," and one comment I saw speculated that some far-left nutjob did this to frame the Republicans and the Tea Party. Never mind that we don't know a damned thing about the shooter yet. Never mind that the finger-pointing is not helping.
Only a few people have pointed out something that REALLY bothers me:
Rep. Giffords was at that grocery store hosting the first "Congress on Your Corner" event of her term, in which she went out and talked to her constituents in small groups. (Political theater or not, you don't see this very much nowadays and she was making an effort.) You know, instead of hiding in her office and letting interns respond to letters and calls and only talking to lobbyists and people who give her campaign thousands of dollars. For those efforts, she got shot.
Who wants to bet that after this, the others on the Hill won't want to "risk" any more of these type of events? Even though this country needs the politicians to actually connect to the people who voted them in?
We can speculate all we want, blame whoever we want, but that doesn't really change the potential implications here.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of everyone that sick bastard shot. This is a tragedy.
And that's all I have to say on this. I'm going to close all the news sites down for a while and go find my sketchbook.
EDIT: Oh, yeah. This was supposed to be a public post. When I wrote it, no info about the shooter had been released, so I am leaving the above as-is. I do think we need to tone down the political vitriol, and when people try to frame this nutjob as representative of whatever political party they oppose, it's only adding fuel to the fire.
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-09 11:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-09 04:30 pm (UTC)There have been comments saying the shooter is ultra-conservative or a Tea Partier. Other comments have been saying that no, no, he's definitely a liberal. People have been moving to brand this guy as a typical example of the ideology they don't like, when in truth he isn't a typical example of the left or the right. They're falling into this "us vs. them" mentality that's only serving to feed the vitriol in American politics today.
I even read one comment where a guy was blaming Congress in general, since obviously dissatisfaction with Congress for not doing their jobs was directly responsible for the shooting. Which is BS because Rep. Gifford was actually talking to her constituents when it happened. If the shooter was really in his right mind and acting on the political dissatisfaction that most people in this country are experiencing, why the hell would he take it out on a politician who was actually listening to the people?
Ugh. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but all these people trying to frame the shooter as a microcosm of the political party they hate are just completely missing the point here...
no subject
Date: 2011-01-09 04:49 pm (UTC)I also think those cross hair posters and hate speeches were wrong - but they were already wrong before the shooting happened and just another symptom of this mentality you described. Instead of jumping on there and fueling it more, isn't it time to step BACK and rethink this whole frame of mind?
no subject
Date: 2011-01-10 09:36 pm (UTC)The reflex finger-pointing is wrong, certainly, but I don't think that excuses public figures like Sarah Palin who have included violent words and imagery in their rhetoric. That's just wrong, too, no matter what side you're on.