Gabrielle Giffords

[wook77]

I love my town. I chose to move to Tucson for many (and varied) reasons, not the least of which was the weather. More than the weather, though, is the relaxed atmosphere, the fantastic people and the fact that Tucson skews towards the higher educated and more liberal than the rest of the state of Arizona. It's got a small town mentality in a small

Comments

[jean_c_pepper]

It doesn't really matter what the political ideology of the shooter was, the hateful rhetoric needs to be dialed down none the less. It doesn't matter even if he was influenced by the rhetoric. It still needs to be rolled back.

[wook77]

This so much. Regardless of the shooter, in this case, the violent rhetoric has got to be dialed down.

There has to be ramifications to violent speech. Stop giving platforms to Ann Coulter and her "kill a liberal" speeches and books. Stop with the "second amendment remedies" as acceptable rhetoric. Stop with all of it. It's not all right to solve a disagreement with violence and/or threats of violence.

[jean_c_pepper]

There is a definite correlation between the violent rhetoric and racism as well. The rhetoric wasn't this strong when Clinton was president. They are subtly playing on people with this. I read an article yesterday that said that the secret service directly correlated speeches by Sarah Palin with an increase in death threats against President Obama during the 2008 Election cycle. I hate to think about this politically but I think and hope that this will sink Palin and possibly others for their hateful rhetoric. It's hard to get past a dead child. I don't think they meant for something like this to happen, but just as Giffords herself said when her office was vandalized after the health care vote- you use those terms and there are going to be consequences.

[star98hope]

well said, especially re: the double standards and the intentions of various media personalities on the right. that's what bothers me the most, is that they either can't or won't see the effects rhetoric can have. I agree, they don't mean for people to put their metaphors into action, but by not stressing the metaphor part of the equation they can give the impression they truly mean what they say.

just, why must everyone be so angry when discussing politics and policy??? it makes me so sad. :((((

<3 <3 <3

[wook77]

Oh man, yes. It drives me insane to hear all these talking heads going on and on about how it's unfair to the Right to ascribe these things to the Right and judge them all by one loony but then, in another broadcast, go on about how all the Muslims in the entire Arabic world supported killing that senator that was killed by his bodyguards. You look at the justification of Islamaphobia when it comes to building that religious center "near ground zero" and contrast it with people calling for more responsible dialog now and it's just ridiculous to see the double standard

[wook77]

Yeah, when it comes to the shooting itself, I just have no words. IDK what to think about the shooter and I'm still processing grief and rage and upset over this happening let alone happening in my town. Tucson just doesn't have this sort of shit happening.

How're your kids doing with it?

[tjs_whatnot]

♥

[wyntreaurora]

No longer living in Phoenix (and generally hating the news) plus not having any of the major cable news channels, I hadn't heard anything about this until late that night - and then with my brain being dumb (I'm still adjusting to being completely alone in a "new" city) I totally forgot that you lived in Tucson till I saw you post your latest over in K/M. Then I was like, HOLY COW! So very glad to hear that you're alright! One of my friends lives in Tucson atm going to U of A so I know how small town it is and how easy it would be for anyone living there to be involved in something going on