[stylist] stylist Digest, Vol 81, Issue 21

[Kerry Thompson]

Judith, your piece is reasoned and calm.

I am what might be described as a Left Wing Democrat. Yet, I agree with 
you completely that the leap on the part of some to blame the Tea Party 
in general and Sarah Palin's hatred-filled rhetoric in particular for 
the act of a demonstrably disturbed young man was premature at best. We 
don't know whether politics in the conventional sense played a part 
here, and we may never know.

As a fervent Lefty, I could wish that this terrible occurrence leads to 
the tightening of gun laws. But, I think we can all agree in hoping that 
at last, after Virginia Tec, after Columbine, after seemingly countless 
instances over a good decade and a half of children and young people 
with social problems and demonstrated mental instability trying to solve 
their problems by mass murder, our society will formulate a plan to 
identify, help and protect youngsters with such problems. Doing so is 
not only the morally right thing to do. As is becoming increasingly 
obvious, it is also a matter of national security.

Kerry