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[bquinlan]

The article below was originally posted by a user identified as jsm on a the site http://www.adequacy.org/ in response to the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11th of 2001.  The text below is untouched, except for the substitution in two places of the name of this latest

Comments

[merde]

you know, you're not the only person on my friendslist who's posted something along these lines (although this is by far the most obnoxiously judgmental version), but i don't think that interpretation of people's motives is entirely fair or accurate. it's natural that people want to discuss an occurrence like this, and it's natural that people look for solutions, ways to prevent it from happening again, and it's natural that the ideas they come up with are usually in line with their own beliefs.

in this case, there's a lot of political baggage attached to those beliefs. the fact that someone chooses to air their opinions in a public forum does not necessarily mean they're trying to shove their politics down your throat.

a more charitable interpretation might be that people are trying to sort out and/or clarify their feelings on those issues by writing down their thoughts; a lot of people use their ljs as a place to write down their thoughts. so it's not surprising that a lot of people have posted about things -- like gun control and mental health care -- that are brought to mind by an event like Monday's shootings.

when, exactly, should we talk about politically charged issues, if not when current events bring them to mind? should we wait to express our beliefs about war until the Iraq war is over, to avoid 'using' the tragic deaths of so many people as a soapbox for our political opinions?

[madspark]

On the other other hand, I have two words:

Jack Thompson

(and a few more; "and people like him")