Mathoms, etc.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik very eloquently spoke about the nation needing to do some soul-searching after yesterday's assassination attempt on Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. He clearly pointed his finger at the hateful rhetoric coming from right-wingers as the cause of the tragedy. Calling his state a mecca for prejudice and bigotry, he said "people tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol that we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech, but it’s not without consequences.”

“That’s the sad thing about what’s going on in America: pretty soon we’re not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people willing to subject themselves to serve in public office.”

Since Obama became President, I've always felt that racism was at the heart of the incendiary statements spewed out by Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, etc. How else would you explain the anger, the uncivil and undignified behavior, the hatred, the lack of respect for each other? The sad thing is that while politics will be at a standstill in the wake of this tragedy, everything will be business-as-usual shortly after.

Representative Giffords has a long recovery ahead of her. I wish her and her family the best. Condolences to the families of the victims, especially 9 year old Christina Taylor Green who was born on the day foreign terrorists attacked America. She was featured in Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9-11. How tragically ironic that a domestic terrorist ended her life only 9 years later.