Gabbie Giffords And "Unimagineable"

"That may be free speech but it is not without consequences."--Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, Pima County, Arizona

By almost any measurement, Gabrielle Giffords is a model public servant. After an exemplary career in the Arizona State Senate, Giffords won the election to represent the 8th district of her state in the House of Representatives. A self described "Blue Dog" Democrat, Giffords worked hard to build a consensus on a variety of issues on both sides of the aisle. She was thought of fondly by almost everyone she ever came into contact with.

Today Gabbie--as she was commonly called--tweeted to her followers in her district to come to the local Safeway supermarket to attend an event she called "Congress on a corner." One of 5 events that she had scheduled for this day in what has been described as a typical effort on her part to make herself available to her constituents. Shortly after her tweet, an apparently deeply disturbed 22 year old man walked up to her and shot her in the face.

While I know this young man's name, I choose not to repeat it. He will be given plenty of coverage elsewhere until his name is no less ubiquitous than that of John Hinckley Jr. or Mark David Chapman. He will not get any help from me in reaching this level of infamy.

What I am concerned about today is the health of Gabbie Giffords--who is fighting for her life as I write this--the 11 wounded in various states of distress, and the 6 confirmed dead including a federal judge and a 9 year old girl. Yes, I am quite concerned about that.

I am also concerned about one more thing. The environment that quite likely contributed to the horrible tragedy in Tuscon today.

An environment of vitriol, hatred, and irresponsible word choices that lends voice, authority, and permission to the most fragile and unstable of minds.

Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer in her statement referred to the shooting today in her state as being "unimaginable." Really? Giffords' house was vandalized during the Health Care Reform debate, she had a brick thrown through her office, and Pima County Sheriff, Clarence Dupnick stated today, "I'm not aware of any public officials who are not receiving threats."So I ask again, really?

Even Giffords herself was aware of the risk. During the furor over Health Care Reform, Giffords referenced in an interview with MSNBC's Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie a "target list" on Sarah Palin's web site that literally showed a map of the United States with 20 districts across the country pinpointed with cross hairs. Including Giffords own eighth district.


Giffords herself said, "For example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the thing is, that the way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district. ...When people do that, they have to realize that there are consequences to that action."

How ghoulishly prophetic her words would turned out to be. Miss Palin has not been the only one engaged in such dangerous rhetoric. Although she may be the most prevalent in practice. Who can forget her efforts of crowd incitement during the 2008 Presidential Election? Referring to then Senator Obama as a "socialist" who "pals around with terrorists," and even questioning his birthright. People could be heard shouting "kill him!" at these events. Palin made no effort to quell this rising tide of hatred, she has instead created a whole cottage industry based upon her often incendiary views.

But she was hardly alone.

In March of 2009, House Republican from Minnesota, Michelle Bachmann said, that she wanted residents of her state to be "armed and dangerous" over President Barack Obama's global warming policies "because we need to fight back."

In July of last year, aspiring House Republican from Florida hired South Florida talk show host, Joyce Kaufman to be his Chief Of Staff. A woman who in discussing the coming mid-term election said, "If ballots don't work bullets will."

West himself, has referred to President Obama as "not a real American."

Republican Senate nominee, Sharron Angle of Nevada infamously stated, "And you know, I'm hoping that we're not getting to Second Amendment remedies. I hope the vote will be the cure for the Harry Reid problems." You know the second amendment don't you? Where it says the "right bear arms."

Republican Senate nominee, Joe Miller of Alaska's security team "arrested" an individual for wanting to ask the nominee a question.

Republican nominee for Governor in New York state, Carl Palladino threatened to "take out" a reporter for attempting to ask a question.

The list goes on and on.

While all of the above examples are of the Republican variety, there are those on the left who have engaged in foolishness or worse.

Jack Conway's Kentucky Senate bid against Republican, Rand Paul was derailed by a bizarre debate where he described Paul as being anti-Christian and a follower of something called "Aqua Buddha."

Even worse was a campaign ad by House Democrat, Alan Grayson in the state of Florida that described his opponent as "Taliban Dan."

"Taliban Dan" and "Aqua Buddha" shows that both sides can engage in profoundly irresponsible behavior, but Republicans have made it a regular practice. And if Republicans have made it a regular practice, then the right wing in Arizona have made it into an art form.

During a remarkable press conference this evening, Sheriff Dupnik updated reporters on the state of the investigation of the Safeway shooting and declared Arizona a "Mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

‎And one has to wonder, what in the hell is going on in The Grand Canyon State?

Several years ago, the state had to lose an opportunity to host the Super Bowl before they finally allowed the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. to be observed as a holiday in 1990. More than once, then and current Arizona Senator, John McCain voted against the observance.

Governor Brewer herself has engaged in inflammatory statements in regards to the state's illegal immigration issues, referring to beheadings and other crimes that there is little to no evidence of being perpetrated by undocumented Mexicans.

She doubled down on her efforts to alienate the state's considerable Hispanic population by signing into law an illegal immigration bill that usurps the authority of the federal government, asks law enforcement to participate in racial profiling, and is quite likely unconstitutional.

Hell, Governor Brewer even signed a bill into law that eliminates ethnic studies from being taught in the Arizona school system.

The heat of the mid-term elections did not miss Representative Giffords either. Her Republican opponent, Jesse Kelly, held an event called "'Help Remove Gabrielle Giffords From Office, " where the prize for showing up was getting to shoot a fully automatic M16 with the candidate.

You cannot make this stuff up.

Now, do I think any of these people who engaged in these veiled calls to violence wanted this to happen? Of course not. I'm sure that for the most part these were political calculations implemented to gin up the fervor of their base. And it certainly worked.

But at what cost?

I have no idea if this deeply troubled individual was affiliated with either party or any political group. Maybe he's just a nutcase that was compelled to act by all the voices in his head. Maybe the current state of division in our country coupled with the words of hate mongers on talk radio and television inspired today's assault. Maybe it's some of both.

What I do know is that all of the people criticized in this article have created a climate that has the potential to incite the angry, the extreme, and perhaps in this case, the deranged to horrific acts of violence.

Mrs. Palin has made a statement today decrying the attempted murder of Gabbie Giffords and has offered her thoughts and prayers to the family. She has also taken down the graphic on her web site that depicted the gun sites aimed at the 20 Democratic "targets." Earlier this year Mrs. Palin defended the use of this imagery against what she considered trite political correctness. Which begs the question, if nothing was wrong with it before and she feels no responsibility or shame, then why take it down now?

Perhaps she realizes that she and others of her ilk have made the weather. And now that the weather has manifested itself as a downpour of bullets, I don't want to hear them complaining about the rain.

Sumo-Pop
January 8. 2010