One of the ‘by-products’ of living in a free society is that you also have to put up with those that abuse such freedom. What happened in Arizona should be condemned by absolutely everyone, this is not a moment to remain silent and withhold judgement. So, it is very disappointing to see people who are usually very vocal about their political opinions not to express or condemn such act of violence.
Then there is the other side who rushes into speculations and baseless conclusions. Yes, it is very irresponsible to say this act was consequence of Sarah Palin’s rethoric.
It is even irresponsible to say that this was politically motivated, or is it? I disagree with those that say that it is to early to say this was a politically motivated act. The way I see it when someone plans to and shoots a political figure it is a politically motivated crime. This was no random shooting where it just so happened that the congresswoman was at the scene. The shooter intentionally planned to shoot congresswoman Gifford. So it is a political crime.
Now, like I said, it is irresponsible to tie this crime to any political figure (say Sarah Palin) but I do have a few honest questions:
- Why did Sarah Palin remove the controversial map from her site and deleted her ‘don’t retreat, reload’ tweet soon after the shooting? Previously her defense for using such map and for any of her comments, that clearly incite violence, is that she never intended it/them that way. So does that mean that I can say anything that could potentially motivate someone to do something atrocious as long as I don’t intend it that way?
- Did she remove it because all of the sudden felt guilt or regret or some sort of conviction? And if she did, did something like this had to happen for her to realize the wrongness of her rhetoric?
- And, if at the end of the investigation they conclude that this act was not politically motivated, does that mean politicians can continue engaging in hate speech?
When you are an influential public figure, in any arena, we the commoners do appreciate your honesty and unpolished words. After all, we want to hear the real you. But I also think when you are an influential public figure you need exercise even greater caution when expressing yourself. Why would you say anything that can be grossly misinterpreted? Yes, when people are after you anything you say will be misinterpreted, but you can certainly make it harder for anyone to do so. Also, if you have a lot of people telling you that your rhetoric could be misinterpreted why would not you consider correcting, retracting, adjusting, etc?
Again, did something like this had to happened?
