Andrew Anderson: Blog

Sorry, I have been left speechless lately. Though there were several key 'victories' at the end of the last session of congress, they were over shadowed to me by the tax cut deal Obama made with Republicans and the FCC not protecting Net-Neutrality.

Then yesterday when I believed I would write a new entry we were all shaken by the tragic shooting in Arizona. I felt sick all afternoon. This is where we are and what we have become. There has already been a lot of talk on both sides left and right, meanwhile the Congresswoman is fighting for her life in a hospital, a Federal Judge was killed and so was a 9 year old girl. 

This is awful and the bottom line here is simple: We must do better than this. 

Communication is everything. But our Freedom of Speech has been reduced to nothing by the FCC and all we have available to listen to for FREE is Glenn Beck on the radio or Fox news on the TV and the messages and rhetoric of those avenues spin further and further to the Radical Right and the Center is relocated to where the Right used to be and, the old Center is now the Left and what used to be the Left is now considered Social-Extremism.

Glenn Beck has a 'class' through Beck 'University' titled, 'Presidents you should Hate'. 

Fuck the content, we all know it is bound to be screwy coming from Beck but look at the title and tell me that Right Wing Media is not indoctrinating hatred into the hearts and minds of Americans who genuinely love their country but don't know any better because they can't afford cable news or don't have access to the internet.

Did Sarah Palin, or Glenn Beck or Sharon Angle call Jared Loughner on the phone and tell him to shoot Gabby Giffords? Probably not. But who knows, maybe Jared was listening to Beck last spring when he recommended shooting members of the ACLU and Tides Foundation in San Francisco. Maybe he heard Palin say that 'these folks need to be taken out' in regards to those who voted for healthcare reform. Maybe he heard Sharon Angle talking about 2nd amendment remedies and thought, 'you know? she might be on to something there'.

The facts are clear that we know that Loughner knew who Giffords was, he made comments about the 8th district in which she served and he had notes in his room with her name and the words 'my assassination'. Loguhner was charged with murder and Attempted Assassination.

Assassination:"the act of deliberately killing someone especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."

So to the people on the Right whining about those on the Left making this into a 'Political' issue: It is political. A Politician was damn near murdered and a federal Judge was killed! Even if the shooter is crazy, that doesn't mean that it is not political. I sincerely doubt that people were standing around grumbling and wondering if John Wilkes Booth didn't like Lincoln's politics or was just crazy, had a gun and happened into the theater that night. 

The message from the Left is not that it is Palin's fault or Beck's, or any one person. Simply that we need to do away with the violent rhetoric in our political conversations. Why? Because, if each conversation ends with somebody on the Right threatening to kill, or implying that someone should kill, someone on the Left then eventually somebody with similar ideals and some mental instability will snap and pull a trigger. Like what happened yesterday.