Whose to Blame?

It sends a chill up my spine to know that I was there just last week.  Situated in the shadows of the Catalina Mountains, at the corner of Ina and Oracle in Tucson, Arizona (and not far from my parent’s house where my family spent the Holidays) is the Safeway grocery store where Rep. Gabby Giffords was meeting with constituents when the shooting began.  Seconds later, six were dead and Giffords had suffered a through and through headshot.  Today, she clings to life at a Tucson hospital.

The reaction was as predictable as an eastern sunrise.  Keith Olbermann issued a special comment.  Essay after essay sprang up on the Huffington post.  ABC News This Week with Christiane Amanpour spent nearly the entire hour discussing it.  By “it,” I don’t necessarily mean the assassination attempt, but rather why this mass murder was really the fault of Sarah Palin/Glenn Beck/Bill O’Reilly/The Tea Party and the rest of the usual suspects.

The only befuddlement to me was how they were able to so quickly find some sort of link between this young monster and conservative politics.  Turned out that was naiveté on my part.  Apparently, there was no need for connection.  That this tragedy occurred at all is apparently sufficient evidence for some to lay blame at the feet of their political opponents.

We don’t know much for sure because the young man who committed this crime isn’t talking, but it has turned that the “loud, angry voices of the right” probably didn’t have anything to do with this.  The killer is known to his peers as having left leaning politics.  Amongst his favorite books are Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto.  He burned flags in his YouTube videos.  To me, that doesn’t seem like the kind of guy that attends Tea Party events and Sarah Palin rallies. I guess I could be wrong, but I’m fairly confident I’m not.

Now that it’s been established that the young probably wasn’t obeying imaginary marching orders from Sarah Palin, the left is saying we should talk about the hateful rhetoric of our politics in light of this shooting.   Ok, I agree with the conversation but not the context.

Is there too much vitriol and hate in our politics?  Absolutely!  And we should have a national conversation about how we treat one another in the political realm.  We could start with the subject of blaming our political opponents for the murderous impulses of the criminally insane.   I can hardly stand to watch cable news anymore.  I can hardly stand to read comments on news stories.   It’s to the point where if you disagree, not only are you wrong….you’re evil.  You’re out to destroy the country.  You’re Hitler!!

We should treat each other more respectfully in our political conversation, but that has nothing to do with this weekend’s tragedy or preventing others like it.  This young man was a nut job who was going to kill whether or not Rush Limbaugh has a radio show or Sarah Palin has a website.  Besides, the stakes are much higher than a random act of violence, and I say that with all sincerity.

Our nation has survived assassinations before.  We’ve lost presidents and presidential candidates.  We’ve survived mass shootings like those at Ft. Hood and Virginia Tech.  This act, horrible as it is, does not threaten our democracy.  Our democracy is too strong to be destroyed by a single deranged and psychotic social misfit.

The threat to our democracy is the way we demonize, marginalize, dehumanize and proscribe the worst intentions and beliefs upon those with whom we disagree.  For example: those who are pro-choice are called baby killers.  Pro-lifers are painted as women hating misogynists.  Our current and previous presidents have both been called Hitler more times than google can count.

I would agree with some of the voices on the left about Glenn Beck/ Sarah Palin etc.  I think some of their rhetoric is needlessly inflammatory.  Sometimes, I also wish they would shut up.  But I won’t join the left in trying to silence them by holding them responsible for actions in which they had no hand nor part.

An historic moment occurred just last week at the swearing in of the 112^th congress.  For the first time in our nation’s history, the constitution and all 27 amendments were read in full in the chamber of the House of Representatives.   The 1^st amendment was read by Gabby Giffords.  As we pray for her recovery, let us remember that the answer to speech we don’t like is not to silence the voices we disagree with, but rather to add our own voice to the debate and to do so in a way that respects the humanity and intelligence of those that may disagree.