Violent Right Wing Extremism Continues
http://www.seattlemedium.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=107059&sID=34&ItemSource=L
Right wing does deserve part of blame for shootings
It was no surprise that Rush Limbaugh rose to defend himself and other
right-wing propagandists against any insinuation that they bear any
responsibility for the shooting tragedy in Arizona.
To be honest, it is doubtful that anyone, including the obviously
disturbed accused gunman, will ever be able to truly understand all
the circumstances that motivated the incident. But Limbaugh, Sarah
Palin and those like them overlook a simple, logical conundrum. If, as
they frequently like to claim, they are the motivators who brought
about the conservative resurgence in November's elections with their
inflammatory and rabble-rousing anti-Democratic rhetoric, then how can
they assure anyone that they did not have a part in motivating this
incident or others of lesser crime that have been reported?
What assurances can the radical tea partisans offer that labeling any
who oppose them with tags ranging from traitor to murdered will not
take root in another disturbed mind? Some will say such risk is
inherent with our right to free speech. But as most appreciate, free
speech does not entitle one to shout "fire" in a crowded theater when
there is no blaze. Is it not similarly reckless when Limbaugh labels
any who opposes his politics as an "enemy of the state"?
Mark A. Crouch, New Castle
Arizona tragedy was fuelled by inflamed rhetoric
-by Lorraine Mann
A MAP of your country. Out of a total population of over 308 million,
only you and 19 other named individuals are targeted.
advertising
Your home town marked with rifle cross-hairs. Your fellow countrymen
told you are their enemy and urged: Don't retreat... reload!
This is the way the American far right does its politics. This is how
it targets its political opponents. This is how Sarah Palin, very
probably the next president of the US and the darling of the
right-wing Tea Party movement, likes to operate.
Was Gabriella Giffords, one of the key targets in Palin's shooting
gallery, bothered?
Well, yes, she was. In an interview with MSNBC in March last year,
shortly after her office had been ransacked and vandalised, she said:
"We're on Sarah Palin's targeted list... the way she has it depicted
has the cross-hairs of a gun sight... When people do that, they have
to realize that there are consequences to that action."
Giffords is the Democratic Congresswoman for Arizona's 8th
Congressional District. Much to the chagrin of the Tea Party, she'd
recently narrowly beaten one of their favourites, Jesse Kelly, to hold
onto her congressional seat.
Six months ago, Kelly's campaign event website sported a photo of the
former Marine in military garb holding his weapon and inviting people
to join him at a shooting event. It included the headline: "Get on
Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from
office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly."
It was neither Palin nor Kelly who gunned Giffords down last weekend.
Both are rapidly trying to distance themselves from the dreadful
tragedy that unfolded. Incriminating Tweets and Facebook posts were
removed within minutes of the news breaking.
Palin and Kelly have issued bleeding heart statements condemning the
attack and expressing their heartfelt sympathy for all of the victims
and their families.
There is the sound of hands being washed. Us? Who us? Naw...
You don't have to have a degree in psychiatry to come to the view that
the shooter, Jared Loughner, is plainly mentally ill. Not that, having
killed six people and wounded a further 13, the mere fact of severe
mental illness is likely to save him from the death penalty. Not in
Arizona.
No doubt, in the back shop of a little driving school in a nondescript
part of London, Mehdi Alavi is already rubbing his hands at the
prospect of another big drugs order from the State Prison in
Arizona...
Loughner is plainly responsible for the shootings and he is in no way
linked to Palin, Kelly or the Tea Party movement. QED...
But you don't actually have to have pulled the trigger to be
implicated in the crime.
Loughner's mental illness means that his understanding of the real
world would have been severely limited. Concepts of right and wrong
are likely to have been distorted and any rational decision-making
process would, in all probability, have been quite beyond his reach.
The Second Amendment allows all Americans to carry weapons, even those
who are so disturbed that there is every possibility they will kill
someone. As a result, in large part, of the ready access to weapons of
instant death, tragedies like the one on Saturday are not uncommon in
America.
As far as we know, no-one really gave Loughner any instructions. But,
over the past couple of years, the Tea Party movement has been busy
whipping up a frenzy of political hatred the length and breadth of
America. Obama and his Democratic Party have been demonised, portrayed
as Communists and - bizarrely - Muslims, who are trying to take over
free America. The American way of life, the public are told, is under
real, fundamental and immediate threat from people like Gabrielle
Giffords.
So, was it Palin and the Tea Party's fault? Probably not directly. But
if you whip up hatred in the way the American right have done and are
doing, then you shouldn't be too surprised if people who are simply
trying to do their best for their constituents get killed.
And, though the blood can hardly be said to be on your hands, there
are certainly spots of it over your clothing.
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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