Collective Damnation Goes with Collective Salvation
When I heard that in Tucson a U.S. representative, and a Federal judge, as well as several other innocent bystanders had been shot and some killed, I hadn’t yet heard what the party affiliation of the representative (or judge) was, but felt immediately it was an attack against democracy, as any assassination attempt is. And it made me shocked and angry. That didn’t change when I learned it was a Democrat Representative. What did change, was when we almost immediately began to hear a tirade from almost every media commentator, and the Pima County sheriff, about how this was a result of the inflamed political rhetoric of the Right, the Tea Party, and certain conservative spokespeople. A sheriff, of all people, should rely more on evidence, and be circumspect about personal opinion. There was then, and there is now, no evidence whatsoever that the shooter was aligned with or listened to or influenced by any of them – in fact, perhaps that was his problem – talk shows could have kept h