Keeping Them Honest: What do a 9-year-old girl, a federal judge, and a 76-year-old retiree all have in common?

What does it say about our society that we kill each other over theories of political ideology? The media’s aim should never be to take aim at a political party. Moreover, its goal is and should always be to ask the questions that lead to the answers society wouldn’t otherwise get. In the wake of the shootings in Arizona, the elephant in the room seems to be silent but rank with a pungent odor. We all must admit that there is something quite fishy about Sarah Palin’s remarks to her followers to “reload and retreat” against the remaining two congressional representatives on her target list. The crossfire’s she places over their heads should be chillingly disturbing to us all regardless of our political convictions. What was she trying to imply with her remarks?

Maybe she was suggesting that there be a second mid-term election which could annihilate the remaining two villains, as she views them. And, if that be the case, why the sudden hurry by her campaigners to delete any remnants of her suggestive remarks? Doesn’t add up to you huh? It doesn’t add up to us either. So, rather than incite a riot or suggest some conspiracy theory let’s just restate the obvious; Sarah Palin and any other public servants who carelessly throw around odious political jargon should be held accountable. Certainly our politics are rooted in religious morality aren’t they? Rather, it seems we have become a self serving race of people too hung up on our own beliefs about governance to count the victims of senseless bloodshed and call them by name—Christina Taylor Green. Dory Stoddard. Gabe Zimmerman.

Ambivalent of our fate as a nation—we are far from being one. Too ignorant of each other to find any sort of common ground let alone relish in our likeness and reject everything about ourselves that resembles an indifference to the principles of one nation. We the people are unwavering, unforgiving, and unapologetically killing each other. Words turn into bullets fast. We’ve been hoodwinked by Palinism yet again. We have turned our founding principles into a one-hour melodrama comedy.  It’s like we’ve declared war on ourselves. These days we should be less concerned with Osama Bin Laden and worry more about the terrorists in our political midst—those who use and incite fear in their followers by putting out viral “hits” against the other side. Lest we forget, in times of war innocent bystanders are always likely to be caught in the crossfire.

 The question we are left to ask ourselves: what do a 9-year-old girl, a federal judge, and a 76-year-old retiree all have in common? It’s not their political party or point of view. They share—shattered memories of a tomorrow where red, white, and blue aren’t divided into two. They lost—those star spangled hopes of standing together when they fell from the good graces of a repressive society. They have—one less candle on a cake which marks a decade since towers fell, no more oath’s to take, or grandchildren to miss. They are—Americans; Citizens of a country that threw them to the wolves. The discourse around the issues we face as a nation is not only unproductive, it has become deadly. The consequence of our politics is human sacrifice. How many more lives will we loose at home and abroad before we realize that life is too high a price to pay for power? We just raised our national debt by 6 human lives and counting. No tax cut, nor deduction can repay that debt. Violent threats have consequences and they have no place in American democracy. Shouldn’t the consequence for using them be the loss of ones political platform. We must stop putting the future of America in the crossfire’s of hell.