Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords
“America at War With Its self”
As reports have flooded in about the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Gifford I, and many others no doubt, stand surprised. How and why could such a thing happen in this day and age? So close to home in a local Arizona Supermarket the story seems surreal. After this initial shock to our collective consciousness in a search for clarity, a sense of disquiet has settled on our troubled minds. The shocking and brutal nature of this crime seems to stymie any thought of answering the whys of this tragedy. However if the situation is reframed and rather than approaching it as the modern day tragedy it was, the shooting spree can be approached as another symptom of America’s stunted political dialogue. As hard and distasteful as it may be, taking a step back from the tears of the many mourning families and a situation raw with human emotion, will allow us to look in askance at the American socio-political geography in search of answers in hopes that we can prevent similar tragedies in the future. Looked at simply, the shooting of Rep. Gifford and her retinue was a visceral tragedy fueled by the sick mind of a troubled youth. However when pieced together as part of much larger pattern the simple crime becomes an alarming shout in the growing chorus of politically motivated violence.
As with all large heterogeneous societies the United States has always had within it a voiceless and seemingly disenfranchised population; these populations occasionally coalescing into powerful countercultures to show their disaffection with the status quo. Beginning with the civil war and the Yankees and Torries this culture of civil unrest was sealed into the amber of American politics. Both positive and negative instances have arisen in the interim of our country's history with notable movements such as the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties, the women’s suffrage movements, labor unionization and more recently the debate on abortion and equal rights for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered community. Throughout the history of these United States an undertone of political violence has played some part in the creation of America, the good and the bad.
In our recent past, beginning just before the turn of the century, a new political actor with a grizzly voice began taking to the scene; politically motivated, violent individual action has begun rising to a fever pitch. Where once the actions of John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald were aberrations in an otherwise safe, albeit contentious, political landscape the canvas is now overpopulated with many such copycats. Beginning with not so distant memories of the Columbine school shooting, history is violently punctuated by the actions the Fort Hood Shooter and now more recently the shooting of Representative Gifford, our recent memories are overpopulated with instances of politically motivated violence.
This disturbing trend toward a violent political counterculture begs the question; are these visceral reactions a result of a fundamental flaw in our political system and simply the chickens coming home to roost? Has the noise of the political maneuverings and posturing of politicians and political parties drowned out the voice of we the people? Let it be stated frankly that posing these questions and any hypothesizing does not excuse nor in anyway intend to condone the actions of these violent individuals. The purpose is instead, to understand if we as a nation have created a climate that fosters these home grown ideological terrorists; and how, if at all, we can start on a path of self-healing. Our thoughts go out to the families who have felt the heart wrenching reverberations of this political violence and more immediately to the health and well being of Representative Gifford. Out of the smoke and these still blazing ashes of tragedy drifts a hopeful light that we as a society can rise above tragedy and learn from our hard won lessons a more peaceful path for posterity.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/08/jared-lee-loughner-gabrielle-giffords-shooter_n_806243.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7082UY20110109
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47294.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/09/AR2011010902528.html
