Consequences

A disturbed young man with a gun went on a shooting rampage outside a grocery store in Tucson, killing six people and wounding 14 more. The dead included John Roll, the chief U.S. district judge in Arizona. The target, however, was U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was holding an event to meet constituents in a Safeway parking lot.

Mass shootings occur with dismaying frequency in America. What made this one especially troubling was its connection to politics. Rep. Giffords, a moderate Democrat, was universally liked and admired on both sides of the aisle. But in the mid-term election last fall she kept her job only after her seat appeared on Sarah Palin’s attack list, which literally showed incumbents in the crosshairs.

Today, as Rep. Gifford lies critically injured after being shot in the head, her response to Palin’s dangerous diatribe last fall makes for eerie reading:

“[W]e’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list, but the thing is, that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have to realize that there are consequences to that action.”

No one is suggesting that there was a direct, cause-and-effect connection between Palin’s reckless rhetoric and the gunman who shot Giffords - suspected to be 22-year-old Jared Loughner. Clarence W. Dupniak, the Pima County sheriff suggested, however, that pundits and purveyors of hateful political discourse should take a hard look in the mirror.

“People tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol that we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech. But it’s not without consequences.”

Intentionally or not, the sheriff’s statement thus echoed elements of the one Rep. Giffords made when her district showed up on Palin’s list.

From the Crosshairs to the Cross

Frank Rich’s March 27 column dissecting the reactionary Republican resistance to healthcare reform has gone viral. And for good reason − it’s a brilliant essay, laying out the irrationality, hate-mongering, and even outright violence coming from the right wing. From death threats against members of Congress to armed militias in Michigan, it’s an ugly time to be an American.

The desire to find a quick-fix scapegoat for our country’s ills isn’t likely to let up, either, even in the week Christians call holy. For all our supposed enlightenment, the tendencies toward mob mentality and political power plays that characterized Jerusalem two thousand years ago are all too familiar to us.

Sarah Palin and others who pander to white Americans’ basest fears deserve to be called out for their race-baiting, gay-bashing, common good-denying ways, which threaten to pull our country apart. Freedom of speech is a fundamental value, to be sure. But surely it is a misuse of freedom to target political opponents with rifle-site crosshairs on your Facebook page, as Palin is doing.

The connection between violent rhetoric and violent action is too close to make “lock and load” references responsible adult behavior. Just ask the widow of George Tiller, the Kansas doctor murdered by someone influenced by hateful anti-abortion publications. At some point, hate-inciting words become a clear and present danger - even when you claim to be a "soccer mom."

I’m not saying Palin should be jailed, like the socialist leader Eugene Debs was during the First Word War. I know politics is war by other means, and I’m familiar with Clausewitz.

What I’m saying is that there is another way: the way of the cross. The Jesus I follow urged us to love our enemies, not put them in the crosshairs.

The irony is that so many of those uncomfortable with racial and sexual diversity in America call themselves Christians. Thankfully, the singer Todd Snider stands ready, courtesy of You Tube, to offer a glimpse of what it's like on the other side of the cultural barricade.