Simple Man Politics

As you all know by now there was a tragic shooting here in Tucson, Arizona over the weekend, in which congressperson Gabrielle Giffords was shot and several people died including a federal judge. These people were attacked by a young man who seems to be mentally disturbed, and who acted on his own as evidence coming out seems to indicate. The evidence also indicated that Gabrielle Giffords was his intended target, but does not explain why he continued shooting after Giffords was shot. However, nowhere in the evidence does politics appear to play a part, but politics will play a part in all of this.

The politics of tragedy are often times strong and emotional responses to situations where a person or a group of people are hurt or wronged for no good reason, and there is no immediate answer as to why they were. Those people who are touched by these tragedies can be anybody who witnesses the tragedy or who has an emotional investment in those who suffered the tragedy, and sometimes they will react drastically to this kind of situation. These people will often say things that seem drastic, irrational, and even hateful while under duress, but they deserve a pass because they need the emotional release.

Then there are people who will use any opportunity to further their agenda, and they do not really care whether a given situation is even germane to their political beliefs and agendas. These are the people that you will have to watch closely and be sure to protect yourselves against, because they will attempt to take from you your civil liberties, rights, and freedoms in the name national security and your best interest. All of this is unfortunately true with regard to this past Saturday’s tragic assassination of Gabrielle Giffords and the collateral murders associated with it.

Of course, not all political moves with regards to the Tucson shooting are bad things. The House of Representatives and the Republican leadership in particular did a good thing by suspending house business in light of Saturdays shooting rampage by 22yr old Jared Loughner. However, there seems to be some renewed effort to attack both the 1st and 2nd amendments to the constitution and in that order too, and this I believe is not a good thing or good politics. Neither is the attempt to link the lunatic to the Tea Party, the Republican Party, or conservatives in general because that just is not true.

What is true is that this guy is a seriously disturbed and whom evidence says lives in his own little world. However, some now want to pass legislation against using any speech that might inflame people’s emotions and especially the emotions of those with mental problems. The problem with this is that they are crazy and no one can determine how someone like that will react to what someone says. They also are now looking to pass more gun legislation in light of the attack and that means restricting law abiding citizens gun rights even more than they already are, which is also a bad move.

What really should be taken into consideration in light of this past weekends events is how to best secure our elected officials when they are speaking in a public forum. I also agree with some that think it should be a federal offense to attack these elected officials who represent the people that put them in office. I also sincerely believe that our 1st and 2nd amendment rights should not be infringed upon simply because of the actions of one lone individual. Without free speech and free press the truth will be much harder to ferret out in the future, and without gun rights we will be one step closer to subjects rather than free citizens.

That is all I have for you today, but I will be back again although I hope it will be under lighter circumstances than this one. My prayers go out to the Giffords family and to the families of those who lost loved ones on that fateful Saturday morning. I can only hope that cooler heads will ultimately prevail when it comes time for the collective national mind to deal with this tragedy legally and legislatively and that no one has their rights to the American dream restricted even further. I hope you all have a Marvelous Monday and a wonderful week, take care my friends, CIAO4NOW!!!!!