If you have ever thought to yourself, wow I am so glad I don't live in Beirut or Dublin or Tel Aviv or... insert a place in history where violence has occurred in the name of extreme politics and or religion... you can now add Arizona. This event just goes to show that anarchists are just under the patina of a society that only gives lip service to virtues like compassion and belief in true democracy. Next time you hear a politician say something like "Don't retreat, reload" just say no- you cannot get me to turn against others to further your lunacy. We need more peace, not stones to throw.
I wrote this in response to an article on today's shooting of an Arizona congresswoman. She was a centrist politician who supported the health care bill but also favored the unpopular law against people of color that has made Arizona famous for racism of late. I often hear people in check out lines, at automotive shops, at the barber... how people are tired of living in New York. The taxes, the dysfunctional government, the weather....
And yet I could never stand to live in a place like Kansas or Arizona or Texas. This is not to say that we are somehow superior to Arizona- we have nuts here too. And the politics in a barber shop in Poestenkill aren't much removed from the climate in Kansas or Arizona or Texas. Still.... there are enough sane people in the northeast to make nut cases like this shooter realize that... well....they're nuts.
Still, such people of the Timothy McVeigh ilk continue in upstate New York, Michigan, Vermont, Wisconsin. They are here and they need to get a simple message preached to them. You may be angry and you may disagree with others, but killing or threatening people is not the way. In class, we have just finished up reading the Rebel. In it, Camus addresses these people who have reached the edge and cannot help themselves but to rebel and lash out. His consistent lesson is to remember that you belong to the human race. You are not a god. You do not have the right to take the life of another simply because you judge that person immoral and even ungodly. You cannot preach messages like the ones Sarah Palin has preached and behave the way she behaves without the lunatics coming out and putting into practice her thinly veiled attitudes.
Clearly, Sarah Palin is not guilty of this crime. However, you will see that the blogoshere has already linked her to this event. She puts targets on politicians. How much brain power does it take to see that this might lead to violence? I wonder if she is tweeting today about this tragedy. Is she privately beginning to question her poor choice of words and the sporting of her hunting garb for the media?
To be fair, this is not about her. It is about those who have held power for hundreds of years in this country now seeing their power ebb. They are angry at change, angry at the audacity of hope, and angry at anyone who opposes their way of life. This anger is poisonous and the more we allow our neighbors to wink and nod at racism, homophobia, discrimination toward women, and a slew of other "progressive" ideas, the more we allow ourselves to be drawn into these old tribal patterns.
The next time you hear someone make a joke about using a gun to silence someone, or a quip about someone of color, or a joke that ends with something like, "we don't need their kind in our town..."... stand up and say "that's enough." No yelling, no anger. Just say no.
Today's news is about Arizona. Tomorrow it could be here. Say no.
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