We're All Tucsonians

If you didn't catch the memorial last night, you missed something beautiful.

Here are the President's remarks. If you don't have time to watch the entire thing, watch the last 10 minutes or so - but I would urge you to watch it all the way through.

An American Tragedy

Today in Arizona, 18 people were shot in a super market parking lot at an event hosted by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The congresswoman was shot in the head and six people were killed - including a Federal Judge and a 9-year-old child (this all according to The New York Times throughout this hour). The Congresswoman underwent surgery and they think she'll recover, although it's unclear what her condition is.

I think this is a pretty good time to start talking about the way folks in the political arena conduct themselves.

When you have high profile public figures equating our President with 1930's Hitler, followers of that figure will take it upon themselves to try to thwart that President's agenda, and those that support it, at any cost - even if that means approaching a Democratic Congressman during a public event and opening fire on her, her staff, and her constituents. If our President is Hitler, then those stopping his agenda - no matter the way they do it - must be heroes right?

During election season last year, Sarah Palin released these images showing a number of Congressman and women who voted for Health Care Reform. On the map of the United States, gun sights were placed strategically next to each district of each person who voted for Health Care Reform (See Pictures below).

Aside from those images - which she took off her website just minutes after the news of the shooting broke (she may have taken it down before she even expressed her condolences) - her rhetoric has been hateful.

She continually uses the same old line about "reloading, not retreating" when it comes to dealing with political adversaries.

This is the kind of rhetoric that leads to tragedies like the one we all watched unfold today. And this is the kind of rhetoric that needs to stop - no matter what political party you're apart of.

Sarah Palin needs to rethink how she conducts herself and what she asks of her blind followers. Getting attention and advancing your own personal agenda isn't worth it if you have to incite violence in order to accomplish those things.

I don't know how Alaska does it, but down here in the lower 48, someone like you, Sarah Palin, whose job consists of hunting moose, posting tweets, and inciting violence, has no business being and no capacity to be apart of the political system in the United States of America.

Say a prayer for the Congresswoman from Arizona and the families of those who lost their lives today.