Giffords shooting: some thoughts

8Jan/1111

Giffords shooting: some thoughts

3 hours ago I had never heard of Rep. Giffords. Obviously, my first reaction to the shooting horror and sadness that something like that would happen at all, whether she and the other victims lived or died.

Shamefully, my second inclination was to see if she had a D or an R after her name. Not because I would care less if it was someone from the other team, but to brace myself for the predictable political fallout. That's the twitterverse we're living in.

I decided I would refuse to participate in politicizing this in any way. That's a lot easier said than done. I realized in these situations it's a real tightrope for even the best of us to balance defending ourselves from vile, unfair rhetoric and the effort to not feed the monster. Some would just say to ignore the hateful nutjobs, but people do listen to this stuff. If it's not condemned and refuted it becomes the truth to many. An example would be when portraying Sarah Palin, Tina Fey said, "I can see Russia from my house." (Apologies for such a trivial example.) So we don't have a choice but to deal with this stuff.

There are rumors that a child was shot. Some of us will probably think twice about bringing our children to political events. That's a shame.

As I said, I didn't know who Giffords was 3 hours ago, but what I've learned so far is that she seems to be a fine American. The horror of what happened today is compounded by the fact that she was doing exactly what so many Americans of all political stripes long for our elected officials do; go the extra mile to be accessible and accountable to their constituents.

As I write this Giffords has gone from being confirmed dead by the media to having a real chance at recovery. I'm proud and confident to say that the majority of Americans our joined with the victims' loved ones and the state of Arizona in fervent prayer for all the victims of this horrific shooting.

crossposted at KillTruck and Pundit League

Kill Truck

KillTruck is a wife, mother, blogger and native midwesterner now living in Eastern Washington state. She writes about politics, pop culture, parenting, wifing and a few other subjects she has no authority to write about. She has macabre fascinations with prostitution and/or cannibalism. In her free time she enjoys eating and/or drinking her feelings, liveblogging Lifetime movies, thinking about Scott Brown and mocking things she doesn’t understand.

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Comments (11) Trackbacks (1) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Dan Collins
January 8th, 2011 - 17:39

A lot of bad-faith interpreters are going to have egg on their faces, but with a 9-year-old girl dead, a federal judge and others, it’s time to pray.

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- KillTruck
  January 8th, 2011 - 17:56
  
  Absolutely. For the shooter’s family as well.
  
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Bob Reed
January 8th, 2011 - 18:09

Unfotunately, insane anarchists are not exclusive to either political party; and linkage to either shouldn’t be the focus of folk’s efforts when people, including children, have fallen victim to a deranged gunman. There will be time for the inevitable political fallout later.

Now is the time to pray for the recovery of the injured victims, and for the families of the dead…

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dicentra
January 8th, 2011 - 18:10

After it slows down, I’ll have to show the various Twitter threads I’m carrying on with people I picked off Glenn Beck’s feed who were saying he and Palin have blood on their hands.

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- Dan Collins
  January 8th, 2011 - 18:14
  
  Thanks.
  
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  - dicentra
    January 8th, 2011 - 20:29
    
    He aquí: http://proteinwisdom.com/pub/?p=3470
    
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Diondrum
January 8th, 2011 - 18:38

The propagandists at CBS Radio news are already airing stories blaming Palin. You can safely bet the Journolistas started working the Tea Party/Palin angle the instant they got word of the Arizona shooting. Actually, I would bet their stories were already written in anticipation of such a tragedy and all they had to do was fill in a couple of blanks.

These bastards have become as predictable as Chairman Oh!’s teleprompters.

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Patrick from Detroit
January 9th, 2011 - 03:18

It’s just damn sad man… :(

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Dede
January 9th, 2011 - 07:50

Tragic….in so many ways.

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Pj
January 9th, 2011 - 18:37

If the response from some democrats is predictable, it’s because Gabby herself warned of the dangers of harsh rhetoric when the crosshairs map was first placed on Palin’s website. Can we please stop now?

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- KillTruck
  January 10th, 2011 - 15:34
  
  When I wrote this all we knew was that the shooter had been apprehended. I’d heard Arizone State Sen. Linda Lopez invoke the Tea Party and say she heard it was an Afghan war vet. Actually, I figured it was a right winger.
  
  But I never could have predicted this crosshairs nonsense.
  
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