United We Stand, Divided We Fall

I was hoping that my next personal blog post would not be a followup to "Playground Behavior".

I was an Arizonan for 16 years. I still have friends who live there. We may disagree on political issues, but we can do so without being disagreeable.

I want to start by making three things perfectly clear:

• Conservatives are not bad people and neither are Liberals.
• Each of these political persuasions has its share of mentally unstable supporters.
• Several people, including a little girl, died as a result of this tragedy.

I know people on both ends of the political spectrum who want to raise families, own homes, and live without the constant threat of violence.

I have no problem whatsoever with a constructive debate on political issues.

I have a big problem with rhetoric that implies violence against other human beings, but I don't believe that Sarah Palin or any other political speaker murdered people in Tuscon. The mentally ill man with the gun murdered people in Tuscon.

The remainder of this post is about the political climate. If you don't want to hear about it, you don't have to read any further. Please support the victims and their families and pray that it never happens again.

When a person disagrees with you, it is never okay to threaten them with violence or to imply violence towards them.

As I pointed out in "Playground Behavior", supporters on both sides of the political spectrum have displayed increasingly violent and hateful behavior. Comments like this one make the situation worse.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." is a great quote, but it's lesson is too quickly forgotten. When injustice is allowed to thrive anywhere it spreads like a cancer.

When politicians and commentators speak without thinking or refrain from speaking when their supporters engage in violent or hateful behavior, they allow the political climate to devolve.

When political supporters physically harm each other during rallies or outside of town hall meetings, something is wrong. The video below this paragraph is from 2009. We should have talked about this back then instead of right now.



When American political supporters engage in this type of behavior, it hurts our status as a nation. How can we advocate democracy in other countries when we act this way?



I also have a problem with commentators who invite advocates of violence on their shows. For example:

Jared Loughner acted alone when he pulled the trigger, but he did so in a political climate that had already become violent.

In his deranged mind, the things he read and saw may have convinced him that firing into a crowd of people was okay.

Political rhetoric that implies violence isn't just immature, it's dangerous. Many of us recognize rhetorical speech and dismiss it because we're used to seeing negative political ads and comments. We should always be aware that some people take political rhetoric literally.

Politicians, political commentators and thought leaders need to be responsible for their words. Those who recklessly imply violence toward other human beings should not be listened to.

What can you do to make things better?

• If you are religious, pray for the families of the dead and wounded. If you aren't religious, please send them your condolences and positive thoughts.
• Don't put your head in the sand. Ignoring this situation isn't going to make it go away.
• Recognize that people from the "opposing party" are also Americans.
• Stop referring to other states as "Red States" and "Blue States".
• Stop using hurtful names when you refer to people who disagree with you.
• If a commentator uses violent rhetoric, contact the companies who sponsor them.
• If a politician uses violent rhetoric, call them out on it. Many of them have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. If you have a video of their offensive speech, post the entire video on YouTube.

I'll end the post with this video. I am not a viewer of Olbermann's show, but I believe that he makes several relevant points in this video, regardless of his political affiliation. He also apologizes for his own uses of hurtful language.