The Tuscon Shooting: My Perspective on The Tragedy and the Aftermath

The Tuscon Shooting: My Perspective on The Tragedy and the Aftermath
As we all know, there was a media frenzy that lasted for weeks covering the horrible shootings that occured at a public meeting held by U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords at a Casas Adobes supermarket parking lot on Saturday, January 8, 2011 and ended with six people killed and 14 injured, including Giffords. The violent acts committed by 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner raised a lot of questions about the heated political climate in this country.
One thing that still stands out to me and echoes in my head are the statements made by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik in a news conference the night of the shooting. His view that the "vitriol" and "rhetoric" in the media was responsible for provoking such acts of violence was repudiated by politicians, political analysts, and talking heads alike though initially it was the most logical assumption to make. I still agree fully with the sentiments made by Dupnik, even after information on Loughner's mental instability and obsession with Giffords was released.
I believe as he does, that the vitriol spewed in the media day in and day out can and will incite violence and not only from individuals who are "unstable to begin with" as Dupnik stated. In the aftermath of the 2008 presidential election, we saw the onset of the Tea Party revolution in America. Their objective was less government control and they had the exclusive mantra "take our country back." They vehemently opposed the policies of newly elected President Barack Obama yet they insisted that they were a non-partisan movement that both Democrats and Republicans could be apart of.
We saw over and over again their hate for President Obama displayed at their rallies. The signs depicting the president as being un-American, unpatriotic, a terrorist, a thug. If those images do not incite violence then I do not know what will. Even more unsettling during the 2008 presidential electon was the rhetoric of then Republican vice presidential candidate, and Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
In so many words, she too accused Barack Obama and his supporters of being un-American, a terrorist.At McCain/Palin rallies people in the crowd could be heard shouting "terrorist" and "kill him" as a response to her explosive accusations. She ironically became a key character in the media frenzy surrounding the shootings in Arizona because of a map that her political action committee, SarahPAC, put online. The map is a target list that shows 20 House Democrats from districts that the Republicans carried in 2008 who voted for the health care bill.
There are crosshairs on the districts with a list of the Representatives underneath the map. Gifford's district is a target on the list. As much as I want to believe the rhetoric that we are all on the same team as Americans, we simply are not on the same team and our government is very divided as well as our citizens.
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