The Tucson Tragedy:
Some Observations
Gary Gerard,
dumbhoosier.com
It goes without saying that what Jared Lee Loughner did in Tucson was
unimaginably awful.
No right thinking person can justify or rationalize it in any way. It
was an irrational, cowardly rampage by a desperate, psychotic lunatic.
Here are some observations.
Obama
I have heard lots of presidents give lots of speeches in my lifetime.
But the speech President Barack Obama gave Wednesday night may have
been the best ever.
The tone, content and delivery couldn't have been better. I found
myself getting misty from time to time during the speech and when it
was over, I felt better about things. I felt encouraged, hopeful.
He showed leadership, poise, grace and humility.
I may not agree with President Obama's politics, but Wednesday night
was an oratorical grand slam.
Guns
I own guns. I strongly support the right to keep and bear arms.
Be that as it may, I think we can make a couple of improvements. First,
there must be some way we can keep guns out of the hands of psychotic
lunatics.
Maybe that means we have to be more aggressive in identifying people
who are psychotic lunatics. People like that need to wind up in a
database so they show up when the gunshop runs a background check.
Second, I think 10 rounds is plenty. Seriously, buying three 10-round
magazines instead of one 30-rounder is not a major inconvenience for
gun owners.
In this case, the death and injury toll would have been far less if the
guy would have had to reload after the first 10 rounds.
Motivation
This is tricky because when you talk about what motivates someone you
are talking about what's in the person's mind.
I think we can say with relative certainty this guy's mind was a pretty
dark place.
Loughner's friend, Zach Osler, told ABC News Loughner was abusing
alcohol and an hallucinogenic herb called Salvia. Loughner became
reclusive and detached.
"He did not watch TV. He disliked the news. He didn't listen to
political radio. He didn't take sides. He wasn't on the left. He wasn't
on the right," Osler said.
But there was one thing that, Osler said, "had a profound impact upon
Jaren Loughner's mindset and how he viewed the world that he lives in."
That was the Zeitgeist documentary series that rails on currency-based
economics. It's classic conspiracy stuff like 9/11 Truthers or Alex
Jones pedal.
He also may have been motivated by a 2007 meeting with U.S. Rep.
Gabrielle Giffords. He asked her, "What is government if words have no
meaning?" Her answer didn't satisfy him, of course. How could it? But
after that, he told his friends she was a "fake" or "stupid" or
"unintelligent."
Besides drugs and mental illness, his motivators appeared to be an
obsession with grammar and a mathematical tic that seemed to involve
prime numbers.
Blame
Here's where I get a little annoyed.
People on the left seem to want to "connect the dots" and blame
Loughner's actions on "right-wing speech."
The psychotic lunatic must have been listening to Rush Limbaugh and
Sarah Palin. And Palin tweeted "RELOAD." And ... gun sights ... health
care map ... targeted congressional districts ... vitriol ... Fox News.
Of course, all this was said before there was any shred of evidence
that the guy ever listened to Limbaugh or even knew who Palin was.
And based on what his friend said, he almost certainly didn't.
I mean, come on. The guy smoked dope and burned flags. Is that the
profile of a right-winger?
It's simple. The guy was a nut. He didn't shoot people because of
health care or immigration. He shot people because he was nuts.
The blame lies with him.
Besides, both political parties use plenty of military, kill, shoot,
fight and target references. Why do you suppose we call them
"campaigns" for crying out loud?
Chris Matthews wished that Rush Limbaugh's head would explode.
Then-candidate Obama suggested in 2008 that if Republicans brought a
knife to the fight, he'd bring a gun.
See, I get a chuckle out of those comments. They're metaphors. They're
clever. It's all free speech. It's all good. Let it go.
Advice
So what I'm getting from all this is that politicians are concerned
about things that might enrage the citizenry.
Point taken.
So here's some simple, sound advice for those who are concerned:
Stop doing dopey stuff that enrages us.
Ask yourself, dear reader: Who makes the rules? Who's to blame for the
toxic political climate we live in?
Seriously, who?
You? Me? Glenn Beck? Keith Olbermann? No way. We're the victims.
Congress makes the rules and the Supreme Court is like a blind referee.
Think about it. If everybody in Congress hates deficits - and they all
say they do - why do we have deficits?
If everybody in Congress hates outsourcing of jobs, why do they pass
laws that make it easy for corporations to outsource jobs?
If everybody in Congress wants meaningful campaign finance reform, why
are corporations allowed to spend all they want? (Enter the Supreme
Court here to rule that corporations are individuals.)
Who screwed up the housing and banking industries by changing the rules
to allow whacky subprime loans, subsequently wrecking the entire
economy?
Why is our energy policy a shambles? Why is our immigration policy a
shambles? Why is our environmental policy a shambles?
Name the issue. It's one giant train wreck.
All anybody in Congress cares about is contributions and re-election.
The will of the people doesn't drive policy in this country, money
does. If you believe politicians truly care about their constituents,
you're as delusional as Jarred Loughner.
If they cared, would worker's wages be stagnant as executive salaries
skyrocket?
If they cared, would they have raided the Social Security trust fund,
squandering money millions of us paid in all our working lives?
If they cared, would they pass a budget-busting health care bill the
vast majority of Americans didn't want?
Is it any wonder the Congressional approval rating in December was 13
percent - the lowest ever polled?
Sorry if I sound cynical.
But if the guys in Washington want our respect and admiration, they're
going to have to start paying attention to us instead of their favorite
lobbyist.
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