[stylist] The Tragic Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords

Thu Jan 13 18:03:32 UTC 2011

Judith,
You have done an excellent job of expressing your opinion on this. As 
far as any criticism of your writing, I had a mild reaction to the last 
word --- after all, a preposition is a bad thing to end a sentence with. 
* grin*

As an independent, I believe that both the hate-mongering retorric of 
the far right (Palin's constant call to reload, depictions of bulls-eye 
targets showing Democratic districts, signs like "Thank God for breast 
Cancer" and "Elizabeth in hell" professionally designed for funeral and 
memorial protests,  and the like) as well as the down-the-nose, 
better-than-thou intellectual snobbery of the far left all contribute to 
an atmosphere of bigotry and hatred which impacts all of us. Though no 
one incident may ever be determined to have precipitated the 
assassinations you mention, the culture of hatred, intolerance, bigotry 
and general lack of concern and civility contributes to all of them.

All of us, IMO, should -- instead of either pointing the finger at 
others or denying our own culpability -- should examine the little 
things we say and think and embrace our power to be better people.

Donna

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On 1/13/2011 12:38 PM, Judith Bron wrote:
> Hi friends, I wrote this piece after the Tucson tragedy last Saturday.  I know this is not a political list, but I'm anxious to see your feedback on this piece.  Thanks, Judith
>
> The Tragic Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords
>
> By Judith Bron
>
>
>
> Whenever baseless hatred results in violence being committed against the innocent, blame begins to be tossed around like candy at a birthday party.  So it is with the tragic shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, the murder of a Federal judge and murder of a nine year old child ironically born on 9/11/01. Many others were among the murdered and maimed by one lunatic named 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner.  The perpetrator was reported to be a pot smoking hard metal rock enthusiast who studied such hate literature as Mein Kompf and Communist Manifesto.  On January 7, 2011 he approached Congress woman Giffords at a public gathering in front of an Arizona Safeway store and put a bullet in her head.  The scenario almost sounds like it can be a bad line in a "deep" folk song, but it's far from a song.
>
>       The aftermath of the shooting is what is quickly becoming a tragedy for the country Ms. Giffords represents.  The shooter is a deranged individual inspired by hate, but many in this country are finger pointing at the Tea Party movement and the Congress woman's opponent in the November election as the source for the hatred that put a bullet in her head.  The tea Party movement is representative of Conservative and Republican Americans, Ms. Giffords is a Democrat.  Listening to and reading reports on January 8 about the tragedy one is almost led to believe that a bunch of hot heads with teakettles in hand stood behind Loughner cheering him on to pull the trigger.  Reading Loughner's sketchy biography the hatred that possessed him to pull that trigger didn't come from Tea Parties, Conservatives or Republicans, but from an inner demon that could control the mind of a person, lead him to a place where he could buy a weapon, accompany him on his trip to the mall where Ms. Giff
>   ords was meeting constituents and the same inner voice compelling him to pull the trigger that severely wounded Ms. Giffords and countless others while murdering others gathered for the meeting with their Congresswoman.
>
> America, stop throwing around blame of freedom loving Americans for tragedy carried out by a deranged person.      If you don't agree with the Tea
>
> Party movement that is certainly your right, but your disagreement does not automatically make the movement evil enough to put a bullet in the head of an innocent woman, murder a judge, a small child and other citizens out for an informative and enjoyable afternoon.
>
> While in the process of blaming the Tea Party movement ask yourself these questions.  When Lee Harvey Oswald murdered JFK in November of 1963 did that mean every person who received a dishonorable discharge was out to murder American Presidents?  When Martin Luther King was slain in Selma, Alabama in 1968 by a white male, did it mean that every white man in the United States possessed a gun bought for the exclusive purpose of murdering black leaders?  When Sirhan Sirhan murdered
>
> Bobby Kennedy in June of 1968 did it mean that every man bearing an Arab last name was about to murder other white American males?
>
> Now that many recognize the absurdity of the useless blame game, let's get down to the business of praying for Ms. Gifford, the others murdered and maimed by a madman and helping to get help for other mentally ill people who believe that the murderous voices they hear in their mind are valid and should be listened to.
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