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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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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.