[stylist] The Tragic Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords

[Judith Bron]

Hi Anita, The shooter was not a member of any group that received blame 
after the shooting.  Our need to assign blame for the actions of one maniac 
is an American attribute that I wish would fade into the night.  Thanks for 
the feedback, Judith
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Anita Adkins" <aadkins7 at verizon.net>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:16 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] The Tragic Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords


> Hello,
>
> My favorite paragraph was the one where you ask the questions aimed at the 
> message of prejudging a group based on the cruel actions of one of its 
> members. I am not a political person, and so I will leave other comments 
> out. My one thought, though, is that, in this same paragraph,  you accuse 
> readers of judging others. This may be offensive to some, and so you may 
> wish to word it so that it sounds as if you are talking to those minded to 
> do such things rather than the reader. As an editor, I also noticed things 
> like run-on sentences and missing commas, but perhaps, grammar and style 
> are not your focus at such an early draft. Good luck with the piece. Anita
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Judith Bron" <jbron at optonline.net>
> To: "Stylist" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 12:38 PM
> Subject: [stylist] The Tragic Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords
>
>
>> 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. 
>> Giffords 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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