This will be one of those disgusted at my world posts that’s not fit for consumption…but I reserve the right to vent. I think I managed to avoid really nasty language but maybe you can tell I’m thinking it, real hard.
As per NPR, Gabrielle Giffords (not my House rep, but a nearby district) was shot this morning in Tucson while doing a public appearance event at a grocery store across town. As of this afternoon, all I know is that she and a few other people were shot. The news has gone from shot, to shot in the head, to dead, to still in surgery. I’m seeing some reports about a youngish shooter who was tackled while trying to flee the scene and is in custody. Perhaps she’ll survive this attempt. With some luck and good surgery, perhaps.
This went from knowing she was shot an hour or two ago to dead, while I was writing it. It’s just…sad. I knew, once I heard she was shot in the head, that she was likely to have died. I wonder if the change to critical condition in surgery is a false hope, guess we’ll see. I’d rather it be true.
I’m already on record, I know, as not a fan of Gabby’s politics; if I was in her district I’d be holding my nose to vote for her, or looking for alternatives during primary season. But she’s from a competitive, split district, and I can understand why she would split the difference a lot even if I don’t like it. I’ll probably end up doing the same thing with Obama next year (thinking of not giving him a primary vote out of protest).
It’s hard to imagine the mindset of a person who would feel the need to resolve such dilemmas by murdering people. But we can recall the macho gun-talk of the 2010 election season, ‘don’t retreat, reload’ and ‘second amendment remedies’ and, well…gunsights on a map.
I decided to save this image from Sarah Palin’s ‘take back the 20′ website as one of those three crosshairs in AZ is for Gabby. I would not be surprised if it disappears in the near future, as I see the URL making the rounds on Twitter. Characterized as ‘unfortunate imagery.’ Yeah, I’ll say.
It makes me wonder, if this is what’s become of our politics in this state, or even this country. When people can speak openly of armed revolt and not get called on it and rhetorically crushed by society. Instead, they’re popular; they’re nearly winning elections now. During the worst of the Bush regime, with its unnecessary war and torture and destruction of our privacy rights, it was the call for prosecution, war crimes; not civil war, not guns, not murder.
Is that what it’s going to take to put a stop to this madness? Escalation? Must liberals go full-on rabid as well, arm ourselves? The Second Amendment applies to us too. Is that what it’s come to? Kill or be killed? WTF is wrong with this society? A paragon of freedom and opportunity and civilization? Light to the world? City on a hill? Dream on. Seems like we’ll have to take steps just to survive.
Hamlet:
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables—meet it is I set it down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain—
At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.
It’d be nicer to think that the shooting was just some lone nut, mentally disturbed, nothing to do with the GOP at all…that it wasn’t the result of ‘second amendment remedies’ and the macho gun talk and conservative talking heads encouraging people to get frothing mad, to even consider guns a viable solution to political battles. Far better indeed if I were just jumping to conclusions about this shooting.
Time will tell if my cynicism is justified, I suppose. Here’s hoping it’s not.
Her father Spencer Giffords, 75, wept when asked if his 40-year-old daughter had any enemies.
“Yeah,” he told The Post. “The whole tea party.”
I understand there’s no going back now, and besides, they’re expanding into southeast Asia. Could not be a better time for an oriental themed xpac. For my part, though, this is the first time I’ve felt pleased about my decision to cancel my subscription a couple months ago. Now it’s like…oh, this is what I’m going to miss? Hey, great.
