Breaking the Silence

I’ve recently had quite a few folks wondering about my silence with respect to all that’s been happening lately. Between the shooting in Arizona, and the disgusting fallout immediately thereafter, one would think I’d be all over that! And I would have been, but for the fact that a family member reached out for help, and I was kind of buried up to my neck in that effort for the last week.

And ya know what? I’m kind of glad. What would have happened is that I would have been as caught up as everybody and been ranting and raving along with the rest of ‘em. Now, while I enjoy ranting and raving as much if not more than most (you know – throwing out that hateful right wing rhetoric), the absence from society as a whole has given me an opportunity to consider the coverage, whether it be the MSM, the blogs, the TV, what have you. And I think that’s a good thing. For instance, Kate sent me an article yesterday that made my head want to explode. Had I not been busy at work, I would have been ranting about it on this here little blog. However, upon further reflection, I realized that the clear intention of the cretin who wrote this incendiary piece was to get a reaction. And I, for one, will not give these attention seekers any more “air space” than they’re worth.

Frankly, what I’ve seen disgusts me, although it’s not all that surprising. The level of vitriol contained in some of these reports is astonishing. Within mere hours of this horrific tragedy, everyone from the Tea Party to Sara Palin to Rush Limbaugh was being blamed. Seriously? Some nutjob starts playing shoot ‘em up in a crowd, and you honestly want to blame the so-called rhetoric? And this was playing out before the bodies even assumed room temperature!!! And facts? Pfffft – who needs facts? We knew nothing – N O T H I N G – about the asswipe that used a town hall type meeting for a shooting gallery, yet the left presume it’s because of “hateful rhetoric” from the right???

I will add here that it concerns me that a teacher at the Boy’s middle school decided to get in on the action. I learned yesterday from a friend of his that one of the teachers at the school said “Honestly, I blame Fox News for the shooting. They put out fake information,and turn people into extreme conservative freaks. Which I believe caused this tragedy." I asked the friend for a direct quote, and he said it was something VERY close to that. I plan to investigate this and will definitely be filing a complaint if that is indeed the case, and I have no reason NOT to believe this kid. Middle school is NOT the place to spout mis-informed opinions - it is a place of learning.

And the hypocrisy shown by the left is simply breathtaking. When a muslim extremist shot up an army base, the MSM told us to hold off and not jump to conclusions. Now, this person’s beliefs had been causing alarm for quite some time, but never mind about that. After a while, according to the MSM, this individual felt ridiculed, felt isolated, felt discriminated against. Is THAT any reason to open fire on our country’s bravest??? Yet in the wake of the Arizona shooting, they decided that the reason behind this is the hateful right wing rhetoric? Pot, meet kettle.

As far as hateful rhetoric, the internet is full of examples of the hypocrisy. I won’t bother to reiterate them here. There is one example that, to my knowledge, hasn’t been widely disseminated and is a perfect look at the duplicity of the left. Ex-Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa, wrote in the New York Times:

We all lose an element of freedom when security considerations distance public officials from the people. Therefore, it is incumbent on all Americans to create an atmosphere of civility and respect in which political discourse can flow freely, without fear of violent confrontation.

Great sentiment. I agree wholeheartedly. However, Mr. Kanjorski might want to remember what he said about Florida Governor Rick Scott on October 23:

"That Scott down there that's running for governor of Florida," Mr. Kanjorski said. "Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him. He stole billions of dollars from the United States government and he's running for governor of Florida. He's a millionaire and a billionaire. He's no hero. He's a damn crook. It's just we don't prosecute big crooks."

Ummm – is that what you call civility and respect Mr. Kanjorski?

I see two tragedies here. One is obvious – the senseless massacre of innocent people. The irrational wounding of so many others. And the permanent harm this is likely to do to the psyche of all who were there.

The second tragedy is that we’ve gotten to a point in this country where rather than mourning the dead, praying for the wounded, celebrating the miraculous recovery that Congresswoman Giffords seems to be making, instead it’s turned into a political game. Name calling, baseless accusations, defending baseless accusations and flat out ignoring the fact that there are very sick, deranged people out there who can do something like this with no other reason but the reasons in his head.

It's really quite disheartening.