[August 1, 2011] Congresswoman Giffords returned to work less than
seven months after she was shot. She cast her first vote in favor
of the debt ceiling compromise bill which averted a global financial meltdown.
I am not going to go into too much
detail about Sarah Palin's profoundly upsetting "Blood Libel"
speech. I am actually even more upset by the Right's response to the
January 8, 2010 Tucson assassinations: for them the most important
aspect of the story was that the Left hurt Sarah Palin's feelings. No
doubt, Palin truly is in pain about what happened, just like everyone
else in America. Certainly she wears a sad expression on her face in
her video. But nevertheless she did say and do some
things which eerily foreshadowed the January 8 tragedy.
On January 12, she issued the "Blood
Libel" video, so-nicknamed because of this quote:
Especially
within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not
manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred
and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.
"Blood Libel" refers to a
medieval myth (which is still repeated in modern times) about how
Jews are supposedly kidnapping and ritually sacrificing Christian
children, using the children's spilled blood for various ceremonial
purposes. Ironically a little girl's blood actually was spilled on
January 8: nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green was murdered while
waiting to meet her Congresswoman. In all fairness, Christina's blood
has not been used for ceremonial purposes, not even figuratively by the
media. The media has largely
forgotten about her, which is probably good because it lets her
family mourn in relative privacy. I hope this was a mindful choice on
the media's part. Sadly, however, my guess is that they did it merely
because
Sarah Palin's hurt feelings have become the main focus of the story,
along with the hurt feelings of the Teabaggers in general. Then, we
also have the sidebar of the gunman Jared Lee Loughner's bizarre past—
and of course the assassination of a federal judge and the
near-assassination of Congresswoman
Gabrielle Giffords are also significant sidebars. The little
girl has apparently been lost in the shuffle.
In any case, Palin (not too
surprisingly) managed to work
9/11 into her statement:
It
is in the hour when our values are challenged that we must remain
resolved to protect those values. Recall how the events of 9-11
challenged our values and we had to fight the tendency to trade our
freedoms for perceived security. And so it is today.
Palin did not get around to mentioning
the fact that Christina Taylor Green was born on September 11, 2001.
Palin didn't mention her at all aside from referring to the "innocent
victims." She also didn't mention the fact Giffords was herself
Jewish. (I am not even going to speculate about the possibility that
the phrase "journalists and pundits" was a codeword for
"Jews," since the vast majority of journalists are in fact Gentiles.)
Speaking of the "innocent
victims," notice how Palin overemphasizes the word "innocent"
in the opening paragraph of her speech. Could she be drawing a
distinction between the innocent victims and the not-so-innocent
victims? I hope not...
Just in case it vanishes from
Facebook at some point, here is the entire script of the video.
Like millions of Americans I learned
of the tragic events in Arizona on Saturday, and my heart broke for the
innocent victims. No words can fill the hole left by the death of an
innocent, but we do mourn for the victims' families as we express our
sympathy. I agree with the sentiments shared
yesterday at the beautiful Catholic mass held in honor of the victims.
The mass will hopefully help begin a healing process for the families
touched by this tragedy and for our country. Our exceptional nation, so vibrant
with ideas and the passionate exchange and debate of ideas, is a light
to the rest of the world. Congresswoman Giffords and her constituents
were exercising their right to exchange ideas that day, to celebrate
our Republic's core values and peacefully assemble to petition our
government. It's inexcusable and incomprehensible why a single evil man
took the lives of peaceful citizens that day. There is a bittersweet irony that the
strength of the American spirit shines brightest in times of tragedy.
We saw that in Arizona. We saw the tenacity of those clinging to life,
the compassion of those who kept the victims alive, and the heroism of
those who overpowered a deranged gunman. Like many, I've spent the past few
days reflecting on what happened and praying for guidance. After this
shocking tragedy, I listened at first puzzled, then with concern, and
now with sadness, to the irresponsible statements from people
attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event. President Reagan said, "We must
reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty
rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept
that each individual is accountable for his actions." Acts of monstrous
criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals
who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not
with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts
used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who
respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies,
not with those who proudly voted in the last election. The last election was all about
taking responsibility for our country's future. President Obama and I
may not agree on everything, but I know he would join me in affirming
the health of our democratic process. Two years ago his party was
victorious. Last November, the other party won. In both elections the
will of the American people was heard, and the peaceful transition of
power proved yet again the enduring strength of our Republic. Vigorous and spirited public debates
during elections are among our most cherished traditions. And
after
the election, we shake hands and get back to work, and often both sides
find common ground back in D.C. and elsewhere. If you don't like a
person's vision for the country, you're free to debate that vision. If
you don't like their ideas, you're free to propose better ideas. But,
especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits
should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the
very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible. There are those who claim political
rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged,
apparently apolitical criminal. And they claim political debate has
somehow gotten more heated just recently. But when was it less heated?
Back in those "calm days" when political figures literally settled
their differences with dueling pistols? In an ideal world all discourse
would be civil and all disagreements cordial. But our Founding Fathers
knew they weren't designing a system for perfect men and women. If men
and women were angels, there would be no need for government. Our
Founders' genius was to design a system that helped settle the
inevitable conflicts caused by our imperfect passions in civil ways.
So, we must condemn violence if our Republic is to endure. As I said while campaigning for
others last March in Arizona during a very heated primary race, "We
know violence isn't the answer. When we 'take up our arms', we're
talking about our vote." Yes, our debates are full of passion, but we
settle our political differences respectfully at the ballot box – as we
did just two months ago, and as our Republic enables us to do again in
the next election, and the next. That's who we are as Americans and how
we were meant to be. Public discourse and debate isn't a sign of
crisis, but of our enduring strength. It is part of why America is
exceptional. No one should be deterred from
speaking up and speaking out in peaceful dissent, and we certainly must
not be deterred by those who embrace evil and call it good. And we will
not be stopped from celebrating the greatness of our country and our
foundational freedoms by those who mock its greatness by being
intolerant of differing opinion and seeking to muzzle dissent with
shrill cries of imagined insults. Just days before she was shot,
Congresswoman Giffords read the First Amendment on the floor of the
House. It was a beautiful moment and more than simply "symbolic," as
some claim, to have the Constitution read by our Congress. I am
confident she knew that reading our sacred charter of liberty was more
than just "symbolic." But less than a week after Congresswoman Giffords
reaffirmed our protected freedoms, another member of Congress announced
that he would propose a law that would criminalize speech he found
offensive. It is in the hour when our values are
challenged that we must remain resolved to protect those values. Recall
how the events of 9-11 challenged our values and we had to fight the
tendency to trade our freedoms for perceived security. And so it is
today. Let us honor those precious lives cut
short in Tucson by praying for them and their families and by
cherishing their memories. Let us pray for the full recovery of the
wounded. And let us pray for our country. In times like this we need
God's guidance and the peace He provides. We need strength to not let
the random acts of a criminal turn us against ourselves, or weaken our
solid foundation, or provide a pretext to stifle debate. America must be stronger than the
evil we saw displayed last week. We are better than the mindless
finger-pointing we endured in the wake of the tragedy. We will come out
of this stronger and more united in our desire to peacefully engage in
the great debates of our time, to respectfully embrace our differences
in a positive manner, and to unite in the knowledge that, though our
ideas may be different, we must all strive for a better future for our
country. May God bless America. - Sarah Palin
[August 1, 2011] Congresswoman Giffords returned to work less than
seven months after she was shot. She cast her first vote in favor
of the debt ceiling compromise bill which averted a global financial meltdown.