My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and families of this weekend’s mass murder in Arizona.
I sat watching the Pima County sheriff pontificate on how the actions of Saturday morning were a result of talk radio and vitriol in the county. It all sounded familiar–echoes of a vast right-wing conspiracy wrung in my ear. Here we go again. What made this press conference so strange and inappropriate was how this officer of law and order was speculating on the reasons behind the killings, all the while devoid of facts. Shouldn’t a figure of law and order be responsible for providing the actual facts of the case and allowing some time for detectives to uncover the sick motives of the crime? It seemed easy to blame conservatives, the extreme right and the 2008 vice presidential nominee of the GOP. As time goes by, we are learning much more about this situation.
We are learning that this young man (a pathetic boy, really) seems not to be a mouthpiece for any political agenda. Instead, reports are showing he’s an extremely troubled and dangerous citizen who didn’t vote in 2010 and had a freakish altar in his backyard. Hardly a political firebrand, he more a reclusive outcast and a loner. I suspect more will materialize about him which will indicate he is not an anarchist but simply mentally ill.
The lessons that Sheriff Dupnik was trying to espouse were irresponsible, unprofessional and inaccurate. Since his statement on Saturday, his voice has been added to a choir of liberals who have indicated the right has somehow poisoned this country with our beliefs–creating an irrational and dangerous scapegoat for the killings. Americans need to look past this divisive political attempt to gain popularity in the polls and see this travesty for what it is: a sick attack on innocent bystanders by a deranged gunman. Trying to tie this heinous act to a movement or belief system is an insult to the dead and wounded all in the name of a political gain.
