No more target practice:
The jokes will be back in the next post. For now…some random thoughts about Saturday’s horror.
Sarah Palin’s target site has been taken down….. will the rhetoric be next? One can only hope.
For the first truly bi-partisan resolution of the new Congress, may I suggest a commitment to civil discourse, and a request for partisans on both sides to turn down the hate speech?
And yes, anyone who reads this blog regularly or at all probably has figured out I am on the left side of the middle. But this is not just a left-right issue.
I am a huge fan of free speech. And listening to incendiary talk, whether it’s on radio, television, on the internet, or in person, doesn’t incite most people to violence. But “most” just isn’t good enough, or safe enough. Because it doesn’t take many crazies to do a whole lot of damage.
And while free speech is not quite like video games and movies that can be regulated, maybe it’s time for a little self-censorship. Or restraint. Or simply deciding that it’s okay to agree to disagree and still act like grownups. (Another example, saying a certain NFL quarterback should be executed really isn’t helping animal rights.)
You’d think the NRA would be one of the groups most out in front on rejecting hate speech. After all, it’s their “product” that seems to be the favorite tool of the crazies. And anyone who decides to promote their cause with a gun, whether that cause is anti-government, anti-choice, OR for that matter, anti-financial institution or anti-animal research, isn’t helping that cause.
An interesting sidelight to a very sad story. While she is pro-choice, pro-solar energy, and voted for Obama’s healthcare reform, Congresswoman Giffords herself is a gunowner and a strong supporter of the second amendment.
Finally, this statement by Senator John McCain reminds me of why I used to really admire the man, even when I disagreed with his politics: “Whoever did this; whatever their reason, they are a disgrace to Arizona, this country and the human race, and they deserve and will receive the contempt of all decent people and the strongest punishment of the law.”
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Left Coast Sports Babe 
January 9, 2011 at 3:16 am
Excellent article. I don’t mind missing the jokes for a few days for an intelligent, thoughtful discourse such as this.
January 9, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Thank you for being one of the many voices of moderation and civility. What a sad day! Let the voices on Twitternet think before they tweet, Please!