It wouldn’t surprise me to learn many people consider one of the more vexing problems they deal with is the inconsistencies of every day life.
Take, for example, the seemingly generous offer of discounts to senior citizens. Clearview Cinemas extends a senior discount to anyone 62 or older, any day of the week. At Kohl’s, you have to be at least 60 and must shop on a Wednesday to get 15% off everything in the store. The Westchester Wine Warehouse also gives 15% off, but its discount day is Tuesday. And you have to be at least 65.
Don’t these stores know as we get older we have more senior moments? Who can remember all the variables? About the only positive thing I can say about the different programs, aside from the obvious of saving money, is it gets seniors out of the house more often. We’re a notorious thrifty bunch, you know, who need all the exercise we can get schlepping from store to store on the right day.
No Surprise Here: I can’t say I’m surprised to learn some Arizonans are complaining Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is not properly representing her constituents because she’s missing too many votes in the House of Representatives.
I kid you not. One even sent a letter to the editor to the Tucson Star stating, “It's been almost three months since U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was seriously wounded in the Jan. 8 shooting, and since then we who live in her district have had no representation in the House.”
Seems recovering from an assassination attempt doesn’t pass muster in the land that time and progress forgot. Some might say that her “not voting” record is more constituent-friendly than the votes cast by her Republican colleagues who favor cuts in social services spending.
Who’s More Incorrigible? A contributed essay in Sunday’s NY Times identified the author as a retired chairperson of the English department in a Westchester County junior-senior high school.
She hasn’t abandoned education instruction. She’s a volunteer teacher at a maximum security prison.
Which led me to wonder, given the nature of many of today’s students, is it easier teaching criminals or teenagers?
Role Model: Apparently, if you’re well-connected, it can pay quite handsomely to be an unwed teenager mother.
The Candies Foundation, a non-profit arm of the apparel company, which encourages abstinence to prevent teenage pregnancies, has paid Bristol Palin $332,000 to preach prevention. Sarah Palin’s daughter received $262,000 in 2009 for 15 to 20 days of work and another $70,000 last year for less time on the job. Though not on the payroll in 2011, her campaign of public service announcements, media interviews plus TV and radio spots was successful, with a greater impact than one would have had with a non-celebrity spokesperson, according to Candies executives.
Could be. If the intent is to gain public attention, Bristol clearly has the right pedigree. But I do wonder about that $13,000 a day pay scale. Seems pretty steep to me, but maybe that’s the going rate. Celebrities who have been part of a Candies Foundation campaign include Hayden Panettiere, Beyoncé, Ciara, Jenny McCarthy, Vanessa Minnillo, Ashley Tisdale, Hilary Duff, Ashlee Simpson, Usher, Rachel Bilson, and Teddy Geiger.
Candies also is not apologizing for what many consider a public relations fiasco—while subsidizing Palin, the foundation handed out just $35,000 in grants to programs to help teenagers at risk. Its rationale: the purpose of the Candies Foundation is to support awareness of abstinence as an alternative to pre-marital sex. It is not a grant-making foundation.
Bottom line—Bristol’s is a message of, Do as I say, not as I did.
Dumb and Dumber: Does anyone have any sympathy for those who shelled out money to see Charlie Sheen in concert and are disappointed with his “performance”?
How depraved can one be to be rooting for a flameout, and angry when one doesn’t happen? It’s the same mentality of those who attend NASCAR races hoping to see a crash or who attend a hockey game hoping a fight breaks out. It’s outrageous behavior, and I’m not just talking about Sheen.
Is there any more cogent evidence that a huge segment of the American electorate is bonkers than word that recent polls of likely voters in Republican primaries consider Donald Trump the second most appealing candidate?
We truly are a messed up nation.
Showing posts with label Gabrielle Giffords. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gabrielle Giffords. Show all posts
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Altered State
Soon I’ll be traveling to Tucson. I don’t think I look Hispanic, so I don’t anticipate any problems with Arizona’s new immigration law. But even after the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, 12 others and the killing of six innocents, Arizona has gun-loving activists who would make it legal to carry concealed weapons anywhere and everywhere. Visitor beware!
I couldn’t begin to match the satire Stephen Colbert produced on the Colbert Report Tuesday night in response to this initiative. Instead, here’s a three-minute clip that excoriates Arizona state representative Ron Gould who advocates unfettered gun-toting. Watch it and shake your head in astonishment, and appreciation, that we live in a country where such inanity (Gould’s, not Colbert’s) can flourish: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/374400/february-15-2011/mr--smith-goes-to-the-state-legislature--then-later-possibly-washington---ron-gould (don’t give up if the clip doesn’t load the first time; it’s worth re-trying).
Another interesting note about the Arizona shootings—I’m never not bemused by the random confluence of similar (sounding) names in high-intensity news stories. Two weeks ago I noted how the name “Tripp” appeared in the alleged scandal involving Todd Palin’s supposed dalliance with a prostitute (Shailey Tripp), his grandson (Tripp Palin) and the Monica Lewinsky affair (Linda Tripp).
Now my attention is drawn to the Arizona shooter’s public defender, Judy Clarke. Though her last name ends with an “e,” I can’t escape noting the similarity to the prosecuting attorney in the O.J. Simpson murder trial—Marcia Clark.
Speaking of shooters, I’m seriously considering buying a BB gun. The squirrels are pushing me to the brink. No matter what I do they successfully breach my bird seed feeder defenses to gorge themselves (I’m not actually serious about getting a gun; maybe a good slingshot, though).
Spring Sprig: Like the hand that rises up from the water at the end of the movie Deliverance, a single sprig of green from our front yard evergreen shrub has pierced through the snow that has covered the lawn since Christmas.
What a glorious day Thursday was, so good I abandoned my no-exercise regimen and did a brisk 30-minute afternoon walk around our neighborhood, followed by some shoveling to rid our two-car wide driveway of snow and ice that had reduced access to a single lane.
I couldn’t begin to match the satire Stephen Colbert produced on the Colbert Report Tuesday night in response to this initiative. Instead, here’s a three-minute clip that excoriates Arizona state representative Ron Gould who advocates unfettered gun-toting. Watch it and shake your head in astonishment, and appreciation, that we live in a country where such inanity (Gould’s, not Colbert’s) can flourish: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/374400/february-15-2011/mr--smith-goes-to-the-state-legislature--then-later-possibly-washington---ron-gould (don’t give up if the clip doesn’t load the first time; it’s worth re-trying).
Another interesting note about the Arizona shootings—I’m never not bemused by the random confluence of similar (sounding) names in high-intensity news stories. Two weeks ago I noted how the name “Tripp” appeared in the alleged scandal involving Todd Palin’s supposed dalliance with a prostitute (Shailey Tripp), his grandson (Tripp Palin) and the Monica Lewinsky affair (Linda Tripp).
Now my attention is drawn to the Arizona shooter’s public defender, Judy Clarke. Though her last name ends with an “e,” I can’t escape noting the similarity to the prosecuting attorney in the O.J. Simpson murder trial—Marcia Clark.
Speaking of shooters, I’m seriously considering buying a BB gun. The squirrels are pushing me to the brink. No matter what I do they successfully breach my bird seed feeder defenses to gorge themselves (I’m not actually serious about getting a gun; maybe a good slingshot, though).
Spring Sprig: Like the hand that rises up from the water at the end of the movie Deliverance, a single sprig of green from our front yard evergreen shrub has pierced through the snow that has covered the lawn since Christmas.
What a glorious day Thursday was, so good I abandoned my no-exercise regimen and did a brisk 30-minute afternoon walk around our neighborhood, followed by some shoveling to rid our two-car wide driveway of snow and ice that had reduced access to a single lane.
Friday, January 14, 2011
American Exceptionalism
It’s a measure of our society that we grieve as a nation when just six people are murdered and 14 others are injured on an otherwise normal Saturday morning.
How quaint. How extraordinary. How exceptional, when across the world life seemingly goes easily on when dozens, even hundreds, are killed daily in barbaric ways. Mass deaths have become matter of fact in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and places we couldn’t find on a map if we were given their exact longitudes and latitudes.
Just six people died in Tucson. Not a famous person among them, though federal judge John M. Roll did have an important job, albeit no longer as full of potential as the life that Christine Taylor Green had ahead of her.
Of course, it is not the deaths but the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that has transformed evil into an act of domestic terrorism, an assault on our national image as a country that settles disputes at the ballot box and not on the firing range.
But it was the random, senseless death of Christina that wrenched our emotions. It would take a heartless person indeed not to mist up at the thought of a life snuffed out so prematurely after just nine years. You would have to be an automaton not to choke up, as President Obama did, when recalling her accomplishments and joy in participating in the everyday cycle of activities that compose a child’s existence—school, Little League, climbing a tree, playing make believe. It was only when she stepped across the threshold into the adult world that she became a victim of our demons.
Americans like to think we are better than the rest of the world, that we place a higher value on life than other cultures. Each soul is more worthy of grace here in the U.S. than in countries that glorify suicide bombers with sex-laden trips to heaven.
In truth, we respect our fellow man, woman and child only in the aftermath of tragedy. We cut corners to make a profit. Mine safety, for example, is too often overlooked until miners are trapped or entombed underground; food processing workers toil in unsanitary conditions, their hazardous output shipped to an unsuspecting consuming public; oil platforms are planted in waters without adequate safeguards for the crews who work them, the sea life surrounding them and the millions who live and work on the shores nearby.
Americans care more for spectacle than prevention. A symbolic funeral, a national catharsis, then back to normalcy.
How is it that a person kicked out of community college for aberrant behavior, a person rejected by the military, a person with known anti-social tendencies, can easily and legally purchase a gun? How is it that we allow any person to legally buy large capacity bullet clips that have no real purpose other than to mutate ordinary guns into killing machines? Can we honestly say we value life more than other nations when some 30,000 Americans every year are killed by guns and thousands more are wounded?
Our gun-loving ethos surely is a dark side of American exceptionalism.
How quaint. How extraordinary. How exceptional, when across the world life seemingly goes easily on when dozens, even hundreds, are killed daily in barbaric ways. Mass deaths have become matter of fact in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and places we couldn’t find on a map if we were given their exact longitudes and latitudes.
Just six people died in Tucson. Not a famous person among them, though federal judge John M. Roll did have an important job, albeit no longer as full of potential as the life that Christine Taylor Green had ahead of her.
Of course, it is not the deaths but the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that has transformed evil into an act of domestic terrorism, an assault on our national image as a country that settles disputes at the ballot box and not on the firing range.
But it was the random, senseless death of Christina that wrenched our emotions. It would take a heartless person indeed not to mist up at the thought of a life snuffed out so prematurely after just nine years. You would have to be an automaton not to choke up, as President Obama did, when recalling her accomplishments and joy in participating in the everyday cycle of activities that compose a child’s existence—school, Little League, climbing a tree, playing make believe. It was only when she stepped across the threshold into the adult world that she became a victim of our demons.
Americans like to think we are better than the rest of the world, that we place a higher value on life than other cultures. Each soul is more worthy of grace here in the U.S. than in countries that glorify suicide bombers with sex-laden trips to heaven.
In truth, we respect our fellow man, woman and child only in the aftermath of tragedy. We cut corners to make a profit. Mine safety, for example, is too often overlooked until miners are trapped or entombed underground; food processing workers toil in unsanitary conditions, their hazardous output shipped to an unsuspecting consuming public; oil platforms are planted in waters without adequate safeguards for the crews who work them, the sea life surrounding them and the millions who live and work on the shores nearby.
Americans care more for spectacle than prevention. A symbolic funeral, a national catharsis, then back to normalcy.
How is it that a person kicked out of community college for aberrant behavior, a person rejected by the military, a person with known anti-social tendencies, can easily and legally purchase a gun? How is it that we allow any person to legally buy large capacity bullet clips that have no real purpose other than to mutate ordinary guns into killing machines? Can we honestly say we value life more than other nations when some 30,000 Americans every year are killed by guns and thousands more are wounded?
Our gun-loving ethos surely is a dark side of American exceptionalism.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
A Day for Republicans
I watched Tim Pawlenty, the former two-term Republican governor of Minnesota on The Daily Show Wednesday night. Talking with Jon Stewart increasingly has become a de rigueur baptism under fire for politicians. Pawlenty’s performance impressed me enough to suggest he might well grasp the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. He’s articulate. Youngish-looking (he’s 50). Pleasing to look at. He’s tall (he towered over Stewart). Not incendiary, like Sarah Palin, et al. Seemingly willing to not be locked into conservative dogma (though that might hurt his chances in the primaries).
As a foil to Barack Obama, Pawlenty would be a formidable opponent. Dare I say it?—the Great White Hope. Unlike Palin, or for that matter Newt Gringrich, Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee, Pawlenty is not a divisive national force. He doesn’t start the campaign with sizable portions of the population questioning his intellect, his mean-spiritness, his religion or his capacity to project an image of service—unlike the rest of the current field, he doesn’t look like he’d do anything to secure the nomination. He doesn’t look desperate.
Nobody gets to be a governor without having sharp fangs or teeth. Pawlenty, to be sure, has them. But keeping them out of sight, for now, has made him attractive, as far as the Republican competition goes, to Independents and disenchanted Democrats. As the campaign progresses, it will be interesting to observe how he changes, if at all.
I noted with amusement last night Pawlenty tucked the tail of his suit jacket under his tush so the collar wouldn’t ride up as he was sitting, a homage to William Hurt in Broadcast News. Hurt, you might remember, played the fatuous though telegenically pleasing news anchorman in the movie, while the more erudite Albert Brooks had to content himself being an off-camera presence. One on-air trick Hurt tried to teach Brooks was the jacket-tail-tuck. It didn’t work for Brooks, but Pawlenty’s jacket collar was a model of comportment. By the way, so was Stewart’s, and he didn’t do the tail-tuck (for a full view of the extended 20 minute interview, here’s a link: http://www.thedailyshow.com/).
Native son politics might also play a part in Pawlenty’s possibilities. Electoral map arithmetic favors choosing him as the GOP standard bearer. To unseat Obama, Republicans need to shift just one or two states from Blue to Red status. Minnesota has not given its electoral votes a red tinge since 1972. Pawlenty might provide added incentive Gopher State voters need to send one of their own to the White House. Of course, had Al Gore secured his home state of Tennessee’s support in 2000, he, not George W. Bush, would have won that election. So, let’s not count any electoral votes just yet.
It’s impossible to ignore Sarah Palin. Try as I might, she’s an immovable force from my keyboard. Yes, I was offended she used the term “blood libel” when criticizing those who criticized her for incendiary remarks they (and I) say created a climate conducive to physical attacks on elected officials that culminated in the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the deaths of six and the wounding of 13 others last Saturday in Tucson.
In her seven-plus minute video released Wednesday (http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin), she shows no apparent regret or shame. She lacks the intellect to understand the nuance of her actions. Perhaps she should read Goebbels. Then she might come to understand how repeatedly attacking, dehumanizing, a foe with suggestive images and language, eventually leads to a society that permits despicable acts. Palin ignores—or just doesn’t get—how her own actions impact others. Instead, she wraps her political dissent in patriotic imagery.
Equally galling is that it took Palin four days!!! to condemn the shooting.
Candor. It’s a trait we don’t often get from our politicos. One of the the more refreshing remarks of the last few years was the way Obama categorized the November election results. He called it a “shellacking.” Few would argue with his wording, yet fewer elected, and non-elected, officials would dare utter such a realistic appraisal. I don’t mean to suggest we should vote for someone because they express themselves coherently and accurately. But I am sensitive to the hypocrisies that sometimes surface.
Consider that for many years conservatives have lambasted the entertainment media for being too permissive, for extolling violence and sex. Yet conservatives time and again refuse to place limits on the sale of assault weapons. They remonstrated against the fictitious Murphy Brown when she had a baby out of wedlock, yet issued nary a word of condemnation when Bristol Palin became an unwed teenage mom. They rallied behind her grit and advanced her as a paragon of virtue, endorsing her role as an apostle of abstinence.
As a foil to Barack Obama, Pawlenty would be a formidable opponent. Dare I say it?—the Great White Hope. Unlike Palin, or for that matter Newt Gringrich, Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee, Pawlenty is not a divisive national force. He doesn’t start the campaign with sizable portions of the population questioning his intellect, his mean-spiritness, his religion or his capacity to project an image of service—unlike the rest of the current field, he doesn’t look like he’d do anything to secure the nomination. He doesn’t look desperate.
Nobody gets to be a governor without having sharp fangs or teeth. Pawlenty, to be sure, has them. But keeping them out of sight, for now, has made him attractive, as far as the Republican competition goes, to Independents and disenchanted Democrats. As the campaign progresses, it will be interesting to observe how he changes, if at all.
I noted with amusement last night Pawlenty tucked the tail of his suit jacket under his tush so the collar wouldn’t ride up as he was sitting, a homage to William Hurt in Broadcast News. Hurt, you might remember, played the fatuous though telegenically pleasing news anchorman in the movie, while the more erudite Albert Brooks had to content himself being an off-camera presence. One on-air trick Hurt tried to teach Brooks was the jacket-tail-tuck. It didn’t work for Brooks, but Pawlenty’s jacket collar was a model of comportment. By the way, so was Stewart’s, and he didn’t do the tail-tuck (for a full view of the extended 20 minute interview, here’s a link: http://www.thedailyshow.com/).
Native son politics might also play a part in Pawlenty’s possibilities. Electoral map arithmetic favors choosing him as the GOP standard bearer. To unseat Obama, Republicans need to shift just one or two states from Blue to Red status. Minnesota has not given its electoral votes a red tinge since 1972. Pawlenty might provide added incentive Gopher State voters need to send one of their own to the White House. Of course, had Al Gore secured his home state of Tennessee’s support in 2000, he, not George W. Bush, would have won that election. So, let’s not count any electoral votes just yet.
It’s impossible to ignore Sarah Palin. Try as I might, she’s an immovable force from my keyboard. Yes, I was offended she used the term “blood libel” when criticizing those who criticized her for incendiary remarks they (and I) say created a climate conducive to physical attacks on elected officials that culminated in the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the deaths of six and the wounding of 13 others last Saturday in Tucson.
In her seven-plus minute video released Wednesday (http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin), she shows no apparent regret or shame. She lacks the intellect to understand the nuance of her actions. Perhaps she should read Goebbels. Then she might come to understand how repeatedly attacking, dehumanizing, a foe with suggestive images and language, eventually leads to a society that permits despicable acts. Palin ignores—or just doesn’t get—how her own actions impact others. Instead, she wraps her political dissent in patriotic imagery.
Equally galling is that it took Palin four days!!! to condemn the shooting.
Candor. It’s a trait we don’t often get from our politicos. One of the the more refreshing remarks of the last few years was the way Obama categorized the November election results. He called it a “shellacking.” Few would argue with his wording, yet fewer elected, and non-elected, officials would dare utter such a realistic appraisal. I don’t mean to suggest we should vote for someone because they express themselves coherently and accurately. But I am sensitive to the hypocrisies that sometimes surface.
Consider that for many years conservatives have lambasted the entertainment media for being too permissive, for extolling violence and sex. Yet conservatives time and again refuse to place limits on the sale of assault weapons. They remonstrated against the fictitious Murphy Brown when she had a baby out of wedlock, yet issued nary a word of condemnation when Bristol Palin became an unwed teenage mom. They rallied behind her grit and advanced her as a paragon of virtue, endorsing her role as an apostle of abstinence.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Tragedy Close to Home
I don’t know Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, but her critical shooting Saturday outside a Safeway supermarket in Tucson provided a sort of Six Degrees of Separation moment. I know the location of the tragedy, having passed it two dozen or more times in the last few years on my way to Gilda’s sister’s home. But it was several hours after news of the shooting that I found out the deeper extent of my connection to the legislator. Giffords is a close friend of our nephew Andrew and his family. He and wife Val attended her marriage to astronaut Mark Kelly in 2007 shortly after she entered Congress. A picture of Andy and Val's two daughters can be found on the front of Giffords’ refrigerator.
Gilda’s sister, Barbara, has lived in Tucson for nearly 20 years. Andrew, her oldest child, moved to Tucson a few years later. He and Val became involved in local politics, managing the successful mayoral campaign of Robert Walkup. Andrew has been Walkup’s chief of staff during his three terms in office. Public safety is one of the areas under his responsibility.
Ever since JFK was shot it has been accepted dogma that a lone gunman could attempt an assassination without being stopped. Guns are just too easily available, legally, in this country; it’s almost impossible to put an impenetrable security shield around any figure. Yet it would be disingenuous to simply ignore the climate of hate and violence that permeates our political discourse these days, creating an atmosphere that inflames, if not condones, acts of violence.
Pima County, Ariz., Sherrif Clarence Dupnik was right when he said Saturday, “No doubt in my mind that when a number of people night and day try to inflame the public, that there’s going to be some consequences from doing that and I think it’s irresponsible to do that.” (This is not a phenomenon exclusive to the U.S. A similar condition led to the murder of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin 15 years ago at, of all things, a peace rally, while Muslim terrorists seemingly daily find new and cruel ways to torment and kill their foes, all under the guise of religious approval.)
Bob Schieffer of CBS’ Face the Nation wondered this morning if “what happened in Tucson is the result of the mean and hateful tone that marks our modern politics?” Tea Party apologists are quick to deny their rhetoric has any connection. They note extremists exist on the Left and Right. True. Violence has been part of the extreme Left’s baggage. The Weather Underground, for example, blew up people and places. But, to my memory, not one liberal politician ever suggested violence against a Republican politician.
Sarah Palin, on the other hand, last fall targeted 20 Democratic congressmen, including Giffords, for their votes on the health care bill. On her political action committee Website, each congressional district was placed in cross-hairs associated with gun scopes, an impression that Giffords spoke out against. “When people do that they have to realize there are consequences to that action.”
On her Facebook page, Palin posted “sincere condolences” to Gifford and the other victims of the shooting (6 dead, 13 wounded), but as of 7 pm Sunday issued no immediate condemnation of the assault or any commitment to ratchet down the vitriol of her rhetoric.
Palin’s actions were no different than those of Pro-Life activists who issue “Wanted” posters with the names and pictures of doctors who perform legal abortions. When doctors are murdered, or their clinics bombed, the Pro-Lifers distance themselves from responsibility. All the while, our country suffers further erosion of the principles upon which it was founded—the rule of law, of equality, of tolerance.
Voice of Love: During intermission of A Little Night Music Saturday night, I literally ran into Peter Yarrow of Peter Paul and Mary fame. I thanked him for being one of my cultural heroes and told him of the time I sat in the first row of their concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in 1968 and distracted bass player, Dick Kniss, into missing a beat in one of their songs.
Peter was most gracious, seemingly pleased to be recognized but not revealed to the throngs surrounding him. Ten minutes later, as he passed us on the way back to his seat, he said hello to Gilda and our friends and remembered my name. What more can a hero-worshipper ask?
Gilda’s sister, Barbara, has lived in Tucson for nearly 20 years. Andrew, her oldest child, moved to Tucson a few years later. He and Val became involved in local politics, managing the successful mayoral campaign of Robert Walkup. Andrew has been Walkup’s chief of staff during his three terms in office. Public safety is one of the areas under his responsibility.
Ever since JFK was shot it has been accepted dogma that a lone gunman could attempt an assassination without being stopped. Guns are just too easily available, legally, in this country; it’s almost impossible to put an impenetrable security shield around any figure. Yet it would be disingenuous to simply ignore the climate of hate and violence that permeates our political discourse these days, creating an atmosphere that inflames, if not condones, acts of violence.
Pima County, Ariz., Sherrif Clarence Dupnik was right when he said Saturday, “No doubt in my mind that when a number of people night and day try to inflame the public, that there’s going to be some consequences from doing that and I think it’s irresponsible to do that.” (This is not a phenomenon exclusive to the U.S. A similar condition led to the murder of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin 15 years ago at, of all things, a peace rally, while Muslim terrorists seemingly daily find new and cruel ways to torment and kill their foes, all under the guise of religious approval.)
Bob Schieffer of CBS’ Face the Nation wondered this morning if “what happened in Tucson is the result of the mean and hateful tone that marks our modern politics?” Tea Party apologists are quick to deny their rhetoric has any connection. They note extremists exist on the Left and Right. True. Violence has been part of the extreme Left’s baggage. The Weather Underground, for example, blew up people and places. But, to my memory, not one liberal politician ever suggested violence against a Republican politician.
Sarah Palin, on the other hand, last fall targeted 20 Democratic congressmen, including Giffords, for their votes on the health care bill. On her political action committee Website, each congressional district was placed in cross-hairs associated with gun scopes, an impression that Giffords spoke out against. “When people do that they have to realize there are consequences to that action.”
On her Facebook page, Palin posted “sincere condolences” to Gifford and the other victims of the shooting (6 dead, 13 wounded), but as of 7 pm Sunday issued no immediate condemnation of the assault or any commitment to ratchet down the vitriol of her rhetoric.
Palin’s actions were no different than those of Pro-Life activists who issue “Wanted” posters with the names and pictures of doctors who perform legal abortions. When doctors are murdered, or their clinics bombed, the Pro-Lifers distance themselves from responsibility. All the while, our country suffers further erosion of the principles upon which it was founded—the rule of law, of equality, of tolerance.
Voice of Love: During intermission of A Little Night Music Saturday night, I literally ran into Peter Yarrow of Peter Paul and Mary fame. I thanked him for being one of my cultural heroes and told him of the time I sat in the first row of their concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in 1968 and distracted bass player, Dick Kniss, into missing a beat in one of their songs.
Peter was most gracious, seemingly pleased to be recognized but not revealed to the throngs surrounding him. Ten minutes later, as he passed us on the way back to his seat, he said hello to Gilda and our friends and remembered my name. What more can a hero-worshipper ask?
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