Reports are still coming in, but it would appear that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat from Arizona, may have been shot and killed this morning. I don’t know much about her other than some background research I did after hearing about this shooting. This is, obviously, a tragedy.
This, to me, is more evidence of a country out of control. A country where information spreads at the speed of light and details are left to those few people that have the common sense to dig for them. The average Joe seems to believe anything they hear on television or the radio without doing any sort of fact checking, or even using common sense.
To say this is dangerous is an understatement. We all knew that kid when we were growing up that would believe anything they were told. And sometimes that kid ended up in a lot of trouble when they were unwittingly manipulated into doing something wrong. The sad part is, you could manipulate them into doing just about anything, including harming themselves. This is what today’s politics are doing to the average citizen.
We, as a country, are going through a rough time with high unemployment, uncertainty about the future, etc. Many people believe they know who is at fault for this and are willing to point fingers and shout out their beliefs. I have my own opinion about what happened to the economy, but it doesn’t help anyone to scream and shout and rile up the crowd. But just like in grade school, there are those out there willing to use the more naive of us. They manipulate us into thinking what they want purely so they can get ahead.
There’s a lot about this latest catastrophe that is unknown. It’s hard not to jump to conclusions about the underlying motivator. My personal belief is that this is politically motivated, at least to the point where someone believes strongly enough to have taken a life. And it’s not hard to see causes of this behavior. For instance, let’s look at a website that went up just a few days ago. It featured the following image :
Those look an awful lot like the sights from a scope, doesn’t it? Sure, sure, one can argue that it’s just a graphic, but it’s a tad provocative, isn’t it? This image is from a website recently put up by Sarah Palin. And now, a mere 3 days later, one of the “targeted” people may be dead. Mere coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.
It’s high time we started looking, not at the politics, but at the politicians. And there’s blame to be had on both sides. The practice of twisting the truth into something else needs to stop. We need to start talking about the real truth instead of the perceived nonsense that politicians spout. Let’s stop twisting simple statements into soundbites that can be used to attack an opponent. Let’s stop posturing for a while and start doing what is necessary to get this country back on track. How about we talk about the real facts and clearly identify what is known, what is unknown, and what is mere speculation. Then, at least, we have some solid ground to start from.
UPDATE:
A few items of note. First, Gabrielle Giffords did not die as a result of the shooting, however she is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head. Six others did die, however, including a nine year old girl and an Arizona District Court judge, Chief Judge John Roll.
The suspected shooter, a 22 year old white male, was apprehended at the scene. Motivation for the shooting is still unknown.
Sarah Palin’s web team is currently scrubbing their sites, pulling down all instances of the image above. Additionally, another image, shown below, is also being removed. I suppose I can understand why, but one has to question why those images were there in the first place.
