
{"id":15169,"date":"2011-01-13T10:04:22","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T15:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=15169"},"modified":"2011-01-13T10:04:22","modified_gmt":"2011-01-13T15:04:22","slug":"letter-from-both-sides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/01\/13\/letter-from-both-sides\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter: From both sides"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the Tucson shootings fresh in our hearts and minds, I am concerned with the comments going on out there. <\/p>\n<p>Before we even knew that Gabrielle Giffords was alive, Paul Krugman said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Keith Olbermann, regarding Palin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153target map,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said she needs to repent \u00e2\u20ac\u0153of her role in the tragedy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The very popular liberal blog, the Daily Kos, also blamed Sarah Palin.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly enough, the Democratic Leadership Council used an identically styled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153target map,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d denoting their candidates are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153behind enemy lines.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Obama just called GOPers \u00e2\u20ac\u0153enemies.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d With this kind of tone coming from the left, there have indeed been many violent acts committed against representatives \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one of the most notable, a gunshot fired at Rep. Eric Cantor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office \u00e2\u20ac\u201c yes, a gunshot.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Most shockingly, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik referred to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and called Arizona \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d apparently referring to their immigration policy, thus labeling half the country as such. He later said that he had no proof that the accused, Jared Loughner, was politically motivated. It is unclear if Dupnik violated Loughner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rights to a fair trial. But once it reaches this level of misinformation, the message is sent, and the game is over. <\/p>\n<p>To be sure, our politics appear to be more uncivil than usual. But they are not of an exceptionally vitriolic tone. The Internet lets us see more opinions, but we are a far cry from the riots and assassinations of the \u00e2\u20ac\u212260s. <\/p>\n<p>Mark Chilton said in a Facebook post that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the words of Palin and Company\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gave Loughner \u00e2\u20ac\u0153aid and comfort.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d On day three, there is absolutely zero evidence of this. He went on: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The danger of the Tea Party rhetoric is not that it will cause reasonable and well-adjusted people to take up arms, but that it will cause unreasonable, mentally ill people to take up arms.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d What of the DLC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s target map and Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s remarks? Again, nothing has linked Loughner to any political party. In fact, one of his fellow classmates believed he was a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153liberal.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But this is inconsequential. <\/p>\n<p>I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wish to take away from the real tragedy, but this is exactly what many are doing. They are doing it by spreading misinformation for political gain at the expense of others. <\/p>\n<p>We can talk about quelling political rhetoric all we want, but until we understand that it comes from both sides, nothing will ever change. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wait for the facts to emerge before we assign blame, and not let ill-advised commentators, that think that they are above the fray, drag us all down.<\/p>\n<p>Christopher McQueen<br \/>\n<em>Carrboro<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the Tucson shootings fresh in our hearts and minds, I am concerned with the comments going on out there. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15169"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15246,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15169\/revisions\/15246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}