"The rhetoric has devolved and descended past the ugly, and past the threatening, and past the fantastic, and into the imminently murderous."
Undoubtedly, the descriptions of Jared Lee Loughner as "unstable, very disturbed" and a "loner" are accurate. But it is precisely unstable, disturbed, loners who are the most susceptible to the rhetoric Olbermann describes. Unstable, disturbed, loners like Lee Harvey Oswald, like Sirhan Sirhan, like Arthur Bremer, like John Hinckley.
Who out of a twisted search for notoriety, or the belief that they are doing something good for the country, or for whatever reasons their unstable, disturbed minds conjure up, gain access to a firearm and get close enough to a congressperson, or a presidential candidate, or a president, to act on the rhetoric like Sharron Angle's calls for "Second Amendment solutions" or Sarah Palin's map with gunsights on it.
If this isn't a wake-up call for those who disseminate the rhetoric, I don't know what will be. As tragic as was the shooting of a congresswoman and the deaths of others in Tucson yesterday, for God's sake, a nine year old girl was one of the victims. A nine year old girl. Wake up, everybody. Please.
Undoubtedly, the descriptions of Jared Lee Loughner as "unstable, very disturbed" and a "loner" are accurate. But it is precisely unstable, disturbed, loners who are the most susceptible to the rhetoric Olbermann describes. Unstable, disturbed, loners like Lee Harvey Oswald, like Sirhan Sirhan, like Arthur Bremer, like John Hinckley.
Who out of a twisted search for notoriety, or the belief that they are doing something good for the country, or for whatever reasons their unstable, disturbed minds conjure up, gain access to a firearm and get close enough to a congressperson, or a presidential candidate, or a president, to act on the rhetoric like Sharron Angle's calls for "Second Amendment solutions" or Sarah Palin's map with gunsights on it.
If this isn't a wake-up call for those who disseminate the rhetoric, I don't know what will be. As tragic as was the shooting of a congresswoman and the deaths of others in Tucson yesterday, for God's sake, a nine year old girl was one of the victims. A nine year old girl. Wake up, everybody. Please.
I'm going to throw out the possibility that the shooter went after her in part, because of her vote for the health care bill, (a lot of people were mad at her about that) when this very gentleman may have had his disease under control thanks to medication that he would have gotten because of the health care bill. Children are covered up to age 26 because of this bill.
From the notes he left behind, saying "Goodbye, don't be mad at me...." I think he intended to kill himself also.
It's time to start paying a lot more attention to mental illness. Mental illness is not shameful. It is not someone being taken over by a demon, or Satan. It's a disease. It's way past time for the stigma of mental illness to be trampled on and thrown away. There are so many people who desperately need help and either their insurance won't pay for it, or they have no insurance, or they are intimidated into not seeking treatment because "what will the neighbors think? gasp!" That guy is seriously deranged. None of his writings made any sense. The teachers and other students were afraid of him. He had been kicked out of school, rejected by the military.
During the moment of silence this morning, I stood in front of the TV. Silent (and who was the person in the background who could be heard running her mouth?). Tears in my eyes.
American is supposed to be "a beacon on a hill". We have turned this beautiful country into a dark place under a bunker.
I am still angry at the lives taken. I am angry at the loss of a beautiful little 9 year old girl who had her whole life ahead of her. I am angry at the people on center stage who irrresponsibly throw out words such as "don't retreat, reload" and "targeting" the opposition. I am angry that, instead of stepping up to the plate and saying, "you are right, we were wrong and we crossed the line", they are furiously backpedalling, trying to avoid any fingers being pointed at them. (Yes, Sarah Palin, I'm talking to you.)
I don't know who said this over the weekend, so many reports, so many reporters. But is was simple and to the point:
Q: Was this politial or social"
A: Yes.
I'm sure we will know soon. It appears more a personal demon than a politically motivated assaniation, like at Columbine or Va Tech. Regardless, what can we do about it?
I've said this before, you all know me, I'll say it again. We check children's eye sight in school. We give them tests for physical fitness. What do we do for their "mental fitness". Hundreds of young people committ suicide every year. Some, like this one, do it dramatically and tragically and include others in their demise. IN this case, and recently at Va. Tech, there were signs, visible signs, that could have been acted on IF, and only IF, we had a mechanism in place to just give students relatively simple personality profiles and tests.
Now I know, OMG, the ACLU and the LMNOP are gonna have a fit. BUT, if we want to actually DO something, I MEAN REALLY DO SOMETHING, this is the only option. Lots of people know they are sick and seek treatment. Lots of others DON'T. Both here and at Va. Tech, these guys were sending up flares, indicating they needed help. And, plenty of people saw them.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
While the Preamble to the United States Constitution is not "law", it sets the tone, the framework, the goals if you will, for what the Constitution is about...
It is the most imperfect of all countries that has unprovoked, dispassionate and wanton multiple murders in the middle of the afternoon. It is the most unJust country that can not guarantee its youngest citizens safety in their educational and recreational pursuits. It is against the general well being of a country's citizens to live in a constant state of fear and fear mongering peppered with multiple wanton murders. There is no liberty in having your life taken from you. Murdered citizens can't help their families prosper.
If you wanted to create a more perfect country, with citizens commonly united to promote a just and fair society, where all people were free to lead, and had an established right to lead, the peaceful, tranquil life of their choice, and reap all the benefits and rewards of their chosen life, secure against violence and disruption of that life, and, as a security to further ensure that life and lifestyle, created a government that would actively protect their lives and its tranquility from anyone who would damage it or their right to it - in such a situation - would you build what we have built?
Would you behave or expect others to behave in the manner in which we do today? Would such a country so described tolerate the violence in word and deed that we tolerate every day over the publicly owned airwaves and in our lives? Would the country described promote financial well being to one class over another? Would it promote and engage in "pre-emptive" war? Would such a country tolerate never ending wars that were never based on protecting our own country and its boundaries? Would those elected to lead that described country be the people we have elected? Would such a country push and argue that carrying assault weapons (whose only purpose is to maim and kill people) would further enhance that domestic tranquility? Would such a country denigrate intellectualism, education, science, and the religious beliefs of their neighbors?
Shakespeare wrote: Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.
Mark Twain said: Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.
You're right about that...that is a horrible, horrible tragedy...really unforgivable.
I don't know if Mr. Keith wrote that, but it was right on and well spoken.
The poor child, Christina Taylor Green, was the granddaughter of Philadelphia Phillies former manager Dallas Green and chillingly born on 9/11/01. An incredibly intelligent and caring bright shining star whose light and life was tragically and unnecessarily ended far too soon.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/early-lead/2011/01/granddaughter_of_dallas_green.html?hpid=topnews
The article about the nine year old girl broke my heart. I have a great-niece who is just the same age.
That could have been her. Or your child. Your niece. Your grandchild.
She is OUR child and we let her down, America.
We let her down.
That little girl just breaks my heart.
She was there because she was interested in government, in going into public service.
I don't think the situation could be more painful.
Well said and I pray this WILL be the wakeup call so needed in America.
Amen, I would say more, but will be offering my own in a minute.