Shootings in Tuscon

I've been following all weekend the horrific shootings in Tuscon, AZ. I've read the suspect's Myspace and the reports on his behavior from school. I've listened to Keith Olberman's call for a change in political rhetoric and call for politicians and commentators to repudiate* their previous statements involving violence, even if it was unintentional and heard him apologize for his own such comments. Lots of political commentators have weighed in.

I posted last year my own disgust at the tone that politics has taken. I am so very tired of the shouting, the over-the-top rhetoric, the hysteria. Our country was designed to have multiple political standpoints and the entire point of a democracy is to have a bloodless change of power as a reflection of the will of the people. We're supposed to disagree. We're supposed to discuss and argue. But I never thought politics would reach the point where it is now.

I don't know if the shooting was politically motivated. I don't think that you can blame anyone for the shooting but the shooter. However, I do think that the politicians and pundits who have let the conversation reach this fever pitch have got to bring it down. Maybe this shooting wasn't about politics, but do you think we're going to always be that lucky? I don't. And we don't know where the gun will be pointed next.

This is not a call for gun reform or change and I've been happy to see sparingly little call for that. It's not the gun's fault. It's not Palin's fault, though I think her irresponsibility has finally been called into question on a large scale thanks to this. It would have been nice to see her grow a pair and say something meaningful in response, but so far she's just dug in her heels and proven to us, yet again, that she has no business being a politician.

Mostly, I'm just very tired of our elected officials behaving badly. I am so very tired of the poor manners, the name calling - actions we wouldn't accept from children are running rampant on the Senate floor. The refusal to work together is childish - it's taking your ball and going home. And the disgusting use of violence in our political atmosphere is disturbing. There is nothing wrong with supporting guns (I do) and being proud of your military background (I am). There is, however, something very wrong about turning political rallies into gun shows and using incendiary language in political ads and campaigns. I am very tired of it. And I'm really done.

Over the next few days I will be writing my Representatives of both parties and asking them to demand a return to a sane political landscape and to expect the same from their colleagues. I will write the same to the Speaker of the House, the Minority Leader, the Secretary of State and the President. I don't think for a moment that my letters will have much effect on Washington. But I can hope that someone will read them and know that there are citizens who care very much about the tone that Washington has set...and that I don't like it.

*He used repudiate at least a dozen times in that broadcast. I have to wonder if it's an attack on Palin's inability to use the word correctly.