Sunday, January 9, 2011

Giffords Shooting. What You Can Do.

It was only a matter of time, really. 

Just a matter of time before some pro-gun nutjob acted out the violent rhetoric put out by others on that side.  We have political figures like Sarah Palin, putting crosshairs over congressional districts, like Giffords', "We'll aim for these races and many others," Palin wrote on her Facebook page. "This is just the first salvo in a fight to elect people across the nation who will bring common sense to Washington."  As I write this, it is still on her Facebook page.  We have right-wing radio hosts threatening federal judges.  You have the head of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, claiming that "The guys with the guns make the rules."  How much farther are the people of this nation going to let this go? 

So, what can you do about?  You.

Here's what you can do about it.  First, stop supporting those who say these things.  If it were a friend of your child who said these things, you would tell your child to stop hanging around them and listening to them, wouldn't you?  If a radio host suggests violence, stop listening, and send a complaint to their distributor.  If an elected official says such things, or fails to decry those who do, don't vote for them, and tell them how offended you are.  If you disagree with Mr. LaPierre and others who run organizations that support violence, cancel your membership.  If you're a member of the media, stop giving them a microphone.  It's simple, really.  They rely on your support, and they say horrible things because they know it gets your attention and keeps it.  Turn your back to them.

The second thing you can do is support those who call for peace, who call for non-violence and tolerance, who actively campaign against violence.  Organizations of people who work together for those goals.  Organizations like us.

Together we can heal our sickened society and create a new trajectory for it.

1 comment:

  1. Start by looking here. http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=253055&kaid=127&subid=171

    Do you not see the DLC using, horror of horrors, cross hairs on their maps? I don't think either map provoked anyone to do anything. Please understand that both sides use martial descriptions of political activities and have so for 100s of years. It means nothing.

    As for this specific incident there is NO evidence at all that he knew or cared about the news. All that has come out is that his college friends knew him as a "left wing pothead"

    It is going to be really important to stick with the facts on this and not jump to the immediate idea that a crazy shooter with a gun is automatically right wing. That idea was put out immediately by the left but so far the evidence seems to point the other way, if there is an "other way" with a crazy person.

    tweets about the shooter from classmates http://saynsumthn.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/tweets-friend-shooter.jpg

    The only youtube video he ever "favorited" was a video of the American flag burning. Not exactly a common right-wing trait agreed?

    There is also no evidence at all that he followed talk radio AT ALL. If you want to blame the the NRA and right wing media shouldn't it be at least a fair request for someone to ask you where your evidence if this may be found?

    You can point to vitriolic speech all you want, and I can show you equally bad speech from the left also calling for violence (and I'd be happy to send you a nice link collection of that) but based on the subject of this post, the point is did THIS shooter have anything what so ever to do with right wing anything and is there any evidence that he was following an ideology and not just plain crazy? If not then it's really disingenuous to link the two issues.

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