Is Sarah Palin to Blame for the Tucson Shootings or Are We All?
Almost immediately after the shooting, the media picked up the story of Palin's map and it targeting Giffords' congressional seat. At first, Palin did not address this part of the developing story in Tucson and instead extended condolences to Giffords' family and the families of the other victims via her Facebook page on Saturday afternoon, according to TMZ.
However, members of Palin's political action committee did offer commentary by suggesting that the markings were denoting a map location. But when messages were released by Palin promoting the graphic, she used the words "Don't Retreat -- Instead RELOAD."
A map is not reloaded. A gun is reloaded.
Because of this graphic and the word choices that followed its issue, are Palin and the tea party movement somehow responsible for the shooting of Giffords and innocent bystanders at her public meeting in Tucson?
The answer is "Yes." They are responsible. But they are only responsible to the extent that every American who engages in partisan politics is responsible. The level of American political discourse has trickled down from a creation point of heated debate with an air of respect to a cesspool of rhetoric best encapsulated in the phrase "You are either for us, or you are against us."
There is no longer room for conversation or respect for differing opinions, only five-minute segments of arguments masquerading as discussions on cable news stations more interested in your pocketbook from an ad space perspective than a concerned point of view.
Has Palin contributed to this? Yes, she has. So have most of us. The American public wears a collective bloodstain every time an act of political violence or persecution is carried out.
What sets people apart is how they respond to being shown the bitter fruit such bad seeds sow. So far, we have seen Palin take criticism and use it to criticize instead of using it to learn from a flawed decision.
Her thoughts were e-mailed to Glenn Beck and reported on The Huffington Post after being read by Beck on air, "I hate violence. I hate war. Our children will not have peace if politicos just capitalize on this to succeed in portraying anyone as inciting terror and violence. Thanks for all you do to send the message of truth and love and God as the answer."
Palin supporters must decide if they want to pass blame while not accepting any while detractors have to decide if they are worthy of throwing the proverbial first stone.
Most people will not change their ideas about politics because of this incident, nor will they change their tone. However, there will be some who see exactly where a "my way or the highway" mentality leads and rise above it.
If there is a bitter lesson to be learned from this horrible tragedy it is that the American people must rise above our current ideas and ideals.
Mea maxima culpa; my most grievous fault.
Published by Ashley Mott - Featured Contributor in Lifestyle
Ashley Mott is a freelance writer and entertainment reviewer. In addition to her Associated Content portfolio, she has also contributed content to Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Movies, omg! from Yahoo!... View profile
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4 Comments
Post a CommentEveryone is partially responsible. Palin is certainly responsible for the violent way she choose to make her point. But because no one stopped her, no one said "hey, this is a bit too violent. Someone might get the wrong idea", then everyone else is also partially responsible as well. It is too late for these victims, but it isn't too late for the next time. When someone sees things like what Palin had on her website, they should speak up and get others to speak up with them and make people like Palin stop using that type of violent based rhetoric. Words do have power. You just have to learn to use them for logical, level-headed and informational debate and discussion, and not use them as emotional blackmail that leads to both finger and gun pointing.
Sarah Palin cannot be blamed for the choice another person made. We are influenced by many things, however, each of us must take ultimate responsibility for our own actions. The man who pulled the trigger made a conscious decision to take those lives. This is heinous no matter who loses a life or the justification of the thought process behind it. I am not talking about war. The need for war is a whole other discussion. Political rhetoric is meant to motivate the people of the United States to act in accordance with the law and VOTE as they are convicted to do so. Political speech that is used is metaphorical and only meant to inspire people to take recourse according to the rights given by the constitution.
Her office was vandalized by right wing zealots. Both her and the now dead judge received death threats from right wing zealots. A right wing zealot was arrested when he dropped his gun at a previous appearance of the congresswoman.
Are we all to blame for them too? Were they all "unstable" and immune to right wing vitriol? Where did they get their ideas? Why did they vandalize her office and send death threats?
The right wing are the American Taliban - ideological, brainwashed zealots whose intolerance and self righteousness leads invariably to violence.
We all don't go around spewing hate speech but Sarah Palin does. She want anarchy, she incites violence, she love killing and shooting guns. Her favorite activity is to shoot animals in the face. Who else does that but the Tea Party, the KKK, Charley Manson, and Sarah Palin. She has spread hatred and divisiveness like never before in history. We are at a historic high with the hatred which is spreading around this country like a wild fire. Sarah Palin knows she is influential. We all are o where near as influential as she is. She spreads hatred as her primary weapon against anything she want dead or she advocates killing it until it actually happens and then she drops out of site hoping it will all blow over. Well this time it will not. She encouraged the crazy in this country to take things into their own hands and she put crosshairs all those she wants out of the way. No we are not all to blame but Sarah Palin is inspiration to the evil in all of us that if we do as she says and