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“What we learned from Oklahoma City is not that we should gag each other or that we should reduce our passion for the positions we hold — but that the words we use really do matter, because there’s this vast echo chamber, and they go across space and they fall on the serious and the delirious alike. They fall on the connected and the unhinged alike.”
-Bill Clinton
"People need to realize that the rhetoric and the firing people up and, well, for example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the thing is, that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have to realize that there are consequences to that action".
-Gabrielle Giffords
All of the rhetoric used amongst politicians right and left, the use of metaphors with extraordinarily violent overtones, and this constant projection to the public that their side is fighting against the evil across the aisle has to stop. The citizens have got to stop being so violently opposed to letting an opposition have their say. Period. It should have stopped after the first Kennedy assassination. It should have stopped after the second Kennedy assassination. It should have stopped after countless acts of senseless violence against countless people who never could have deserved it. It should never have started to begin with.
The person responsible for this heinous act is, based on his writings, likely mentally ill. I won't place the blame for this mass shooting on politicians or the media. They didn't support mass murder as a means of getting a point across. That being said, they should no longer get a pass for the hateful, inciteful, downright inflammatory things they have said at countless rallies, speeches, and newscasts. Words mean things. The people who have the means to make their messages heard must be very careful about what words they use, if only because their messages will be heard. Comparing opponents to terrorists, elections to war, and acts of Congress to life or death situations has to stop. The sentence "don't retreat - reload!" has no business in the political arena. Marking the districts of opposing party members you would like to see out of office with crosshairs is absolutely unjustifiable. Violent overtones to politcal ideologies should be completely unwelcome.
Ideally, the events of January 10 would tamper violent sensationalism and cause us to take a close look at ourselves and how we report news or campaign. I doubt it will though. I see no reason why this tragedy should change things when horrors comitted in the past century or two have had no effect. Instead of taking a short break from the usual routine of angry, irrational speech from both sides of the aisles and trying to figure out who to blame for all of this, everybody should calm the fuck down from here on out. Of course, believing that will happen is just a fool's hope.
Six people are dead: among them are a nine year old girl and a Federal Judge. A Congresswoman is fighting for her life after being shot through the brain. This is what matters the most about this situation. This is not a Democratic tragedy, or a Republican tragedy, or an Arizona tragedy. This is an American tragedy, and people should always remember that.
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