Sarah Palin has taken down her bull’s-eye map, the one that targeted Gabrielle Gifford, the U.S. Congresswoman just shot outside a Tucson Safeway by some nutcase—or, we’re told on the fly, maybe two or even three nutcases. Lest we forget, let’s take one last look at the disappearing map of Ms. Palin’s target:
Just now MSNBC in Tucson is reporting that Gifford survived brain surgery and is expected to live. But the surgeon said another of the hospital’s patients, a girl estimated to be about nine years old, died.
No doubt Ms. Palin is proud of what she and her supporters have accomplished. Clearly they haven’t the sense to understand the consequences of their irresponsible demagoguery.
A nine-year-old child died because of the hatefulness promulgated by people who subscribe to that kind of thinking. The kind of people who think a map making targets of other human beings is funny.
Got a blog? Post this damnable map.
Don’t let Sarah Palin erase it. Don’t let anyone forget what it was and where it was and who put it in front of a rabid animal with a gun.
While I don’t support Ms. Palin, I think you are rushing to a conclusion. There has been absolutely no information that would connect the gunman with Ms. Palin’s map. Doing so prematurely starts another round of hatred, this time directed to a conservative. No way to end the political vitriol that abounds nowdays.
Such a tragedy. So many lives affected by this whether they are the victim or family or friend. Whether injured or killed. And if you read the comments on online news articles, nobody seems to want to wish the victims and their families well or pray for them. People just want to spew their rhetoric. And I thank you, Funny, for making me aware of this map. We do not know at this point whether this had anything to do with today’s tragedy. But it was so irresponsible to post something as incendiary as this.
Another posting I found most thought provoking on this matter, that you might like to read:
http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2011/01/counting-cost-of-violent-rhetoric.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RAGEagainsttheMINIVAN+%28Rage+Against+The+Minivan%29
@ Susan Finton: I have to respectfully disagree about the significance of the crosshairs map. It appears, if one believes the Facebook pages alleged to be Mr. Loughner’s actually were his, that the shooter is mentally deranged. Ms. Palin, whatever we may think of her intellect, is not insane. She should know — the most basic common decency should tell her — that urging her followers to “shoot” (metaphorically or not) those she designates as “the enemy” is very likely to motivate the unhinged and the vicious to take her literally.
When someone who does suffer from basic common decency objects to this kind of hateful thing, adherents of Ms. Palin and her ilk turn it around and accuse us of hatred. That, clearly, is absurd. That Ms. Palin advocates violence does not make me a hater. That I find her crosshairs map repellent does not make me a hater. That I suspect such irresponsible publicity stunts stir the mentally ill to violence does not make me a hater. That I object to racism does not make me a hater.
The events that unfolded yesterday were exactly what one would expect — and indeed, exactly what I imagined happening when I first saw Ms. Palin’s map when it came out. I recall noticing that she had targeted Ms. Gifford among other Southern Arizona Democratic candidates and thinking that some nut was going to go after one of them, probably Ms. Gifford. And that’s exactly what happened, isn’t it?
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said it well: “The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately Arizona, I think, is the capital. We are the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”
No joke!
To arrive at that conclusion, all you have to do is read the comments on any Southwestern TV station’s “news” site. Though they report rather little news, they often open every report to comments. These are filled with vitriol and hatred. In the Phoenix area, it became so extreme that ABC Channel 15 effectively closed its comments section down, silencing the rabid by requiring that everyone’s actual name appear in the comments section. The Arizona Republic tries to the temper the hatred in its comments section by simply closing comments to any report about immigration issues, to any story containing the name of someone who has a Hispanic name, and to most articles on political subjects or hot topics. On Channel 15, any topic at all, from a car crash on the freeway to what to feed your dog, would be twisted around to include invective about Hispanics.
@ DeeDee: The post at “Rage against the Minivan” is well said, particularly when the author remarks that “this is not a political post — this is an antiviolence post.” Well, you can’t be antiviolence in this country without being political, unfortunately.
If the U.S. had a decent mental health system, we might have fewer incidents like this. It’s even harder to get mental health care than it is to get care for your physical ailments. For general health-care problems, you may manage to get treatment if you’re fairly affluent and employed by a corporation that can afford to carry expensive health insurance. But even if you have decent healthcare insurance, it’s often difficult or impossible to obtain mental health care.
One of Minivan’s commenters, GrowFamilyGrow, points out that “Gov Jan Brewer signed a budget that denied health care for children of the working poor and severely mentally ill. From her proposed budget: ‘amend the mental health statutes to eliminate the requirement to provide mental health services to individuals who are seriously mentally ill.'” Brewer is a right-wing politician leading a legislature filled with kill-the-beasters. She’s the one who remarked, a day or two ago, that it’s “sad” when people on Medicaid are blocked from life-saving transplant surgery — the second one just died a day or so ago: so sad, too bad. It’s hard to escape the feeling that the right wing is committed to the most heartless and irresponsible tactics in order to achieve its objectives.
I have pretty much found hate spewing from BOTH sides of the political spectrum.
I used that image on my post today. I agree with E. Murphy that hate has spewed from both sides. However, it seemed to be more predominant with the tea party followers.
It is irresponsible for political candidates and leaders to stir up such hate. What has happened to reasonable discussion of differences in our country?
Funny
I was under the impression that this blog was developed to help people with their finances and provide unbiased information that could lead them to those decisions.
Instead, I see you’ve taken quite a stance here and I think your timing and writing is appalling. To suggest Ms. Palin had anything to do with anything is extremely ridiculous and it’s your kind of thinking that you seem to condemn.
It’s an image, and quite honestly, I think a well thought out one on how republicans can take control of Congress. Using a target simply represents the right wing belief in gun-control and nothing more. Clever, and memorable.
The fact that a shooting occurred is a tragedy, and you trying to play it up as anything more than someone who made a terrible, unforgivable mistake is unprofessional, and again, appalling.
You should be ashamed of yourself
i dont think palins map is linked with killing at all—but with parts of american TV news networks simplifying war/health/capitalism/communism/wall st./banks/terrorism and strongly debasing other side of argument has alot to answer.
the internet makes it possible for a killer/to latch onto any site and believe or use it as an excuse for his/her actions.
america is a great country—im amazed at its democracy and divergence.
this is another tragedy which could never have been forscene
Keep telling it like it is, Funny. (“Don’t retreat. Reload” is still on-line, btw).
Those picking up guns and making a choice to shoot are responsible. This is like blaming violent TV shows causing criminals to kill. I respectfully disagree that S. Palin and her allies are at fault and I am no fan of hers.
@ everyone commenting on the Gabrielle Gifford post:
Thanks for your thoughts and additions to this discussion.
It’s true that the mean-mindedness occurs on both sides of the political divide that has riven our country in two. Probably from each point of view, it seems that the other side is the meaner and the nastier.
None of us is without fault.
That, my friends, is the issue. If our country is to survive, we must transcend the meanness that has been fomented by factions who may indeed believe their thinking is right but whose goals may be less than ideal, no matter which “side” they represent. As citizens, we have to go around “Republican” and “Democrat,” “left” and “right,” “Christian” and “Muslim,” “I got here first” and “immigrant,” and come to a consensus as to what is common sense and common decency. The more we rage at each other, the further we get from that consensus.
The further we get from consensus, the dimmer the future of this country grows.
@ Michael and David: Mr. Loughner evidently is insane. Many people are insane. So, David, I would disagree that the recent events in Tucson could not have been foreseen. To the contrary: this has happened before, and that it could happen again was quite predictable.
We will always have those among us whose minds unravel, who become so lost they are dangerous to those around them. Because we know that, responsible leaders refrain from inflammatory speech that incites the irrational — as well as the relatively sane whose hearts are merely filled with hate — to commit vicious acts. Ms. Palin’s nasty little map, accompanied with rhetoric like “shoot with accuracy,” “penetrate through enemy territory,” and “your…leaders will be in the enemy’s crosshairs,” did exactly that. Hers is not the kind of leadership our country needs.
I do not feel that we should overreact, as Rep. Robert Brady and some of his colleagues propose, by putting yet another crimp on freedom of speech. But I do feel we should place blame where blame is due. And we should refrain from voting for would-be leaders who speak and behave irresponsibly.
I lost a few subscribers yesterday and I’m sure it was due to my thoughts on this issue.
That’s okay, because if they are that intolerant of other viewpoints than my blog is not for them. I wish they had, instead, shared their opinions like some of your commenters.
This is just so nuts! I live over here in Europe and we really don’t get the whole gin culture. I know it’s your right and all but having maps with cross hairs sent out by politicians is so nuts!
So sad to see what happened to the kid especially though.
We disapprove of violent speech and threats toward women. Threats come first, often, and violence later. Can we extrapolate that to a joke “threat?” Can we extrapolate our disapproval of violent speech toward women to the samehate/racist speech to lawmakers or different ethnicities? If not, why not?
Why incite a mentally unbalanced person to extreme acts that otherwise might not be committed. If Palin’s speech and map invite extremism, then a mentally unbalanced person step up to be a hero?
A boy in the third grade kept telling me he was “going to cut your gizzard out” everytime I raised my hand, laughed, or gave a right answer. He sat in front of me and frightened me. No, I don’t have a gizzard, and he did not have a cutting instrument. But, I perceived a threat of violence, became older and realized it was a false threat, became older still and realized his threat was wrong on so many levels–against a female, against someone smaller, in a classroom where everyone should have felt safe. I often wonder if he is still making threats, bullies people, targets females only for whatever he dishes out. Did the females who went on to go to school with him through high schools see his true violent side?
Speech that threatens to harm someone is always wrong even if we never see violence to anyone. Somewhere, someplace, someone who never heard threats from this person may be a victim.
Well said, Funny. The real shame is that it has to be said. One would hope grown-ups would know better. Yet another reminder that Sarah Palin is anything but a grown-up. I am utterly mystified that she has an audience at all. But then the “mean girls”–and Sarah Palin fits the prototype perfectly–always find their followers.
My fervent hopes and prayers are with the families of the deceased and with the survivors. I hope the shooter gets the help he so clearly needed prior to the act, but I also hope he’s never in a position to harm innocents again.
@Michael:
Re: your comment “I was under the impression that this blog was developed to help people with their finances and provide unbiased information that could lead them to those decisions.”
May I refer you to this previous post where Funny discusses the direction her blog is headed:
https://funny-about-money.com/2010/12/31/blogiversary/
And I really do not think she should be the slightest bit “ashamed of herself”. This is her blog, she can write what she likes.
I happened to find it quite topical. I was so disturbed by this event and appreciate hearing others’ points of view whether they are in agreement with my thoughts or not. And I am tired of the culture of hatred. Whether that is related to this horrific event or not. Public figures should be more responsible in their speech and actions.
This is just too coincidental…I would not be surprised if this nut-job took S. Palin’s site literally. She is toxic to the country, IMO, and remember, readers, that that is just an opinion.
Having just found your website today I was intrigued and read further, until I saw this. Unfortunately I will not be visiting your website again nor will I be buying or reading your books. This post is a shame and you should be ashamed. The obvious intent of Mrs. Palin was not for anyone to be killed but for conservatives to win those seats in AZ. To imply that Mrs. Palin would have wished this to happen or that she somehow influenced this mad man is childish and irresponsible. You should do your research on the person would committed these horrible acts as I have (he has a you tube page) and you will see that he was just plain crazy. That has nothing to do with Mrs. Palin or anyone else for that matter except maybe his parents.
You know what I think Keith Oberman turned President Bush into the Devil once and since I am devot Christian I should probably go attack President Bush in God’s name….
/Sarcasm
No one is to blame but this asshole or maybe his parents for F’ing him up (if that turns out to be true)
@ Evan: Yup…no question there’s been incredibly stupid mean stuff on both sides! Can you imagine? I sure was no fan of W, but forgodsake the man was PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. We can’t gag out a modicum of respect? Fantasizing about murdering an elected representative — or anyone, for that matter — is unacceptable, no matter what the circumstances.
The whole business with that poor crazed lunatic is pathetic from the git-go. In Arizona there’s precious little help for the mentally ill, and if you’re unemployed or working poor, what little we had has now been taken away by our august legislature. Not only did people see from the time he was in high school that his marbles were bouncing down the street and NOTHING was done about it, the guy was arrested twice, tossed out of two educational institutions because he was crazy as a loon, and he still managed to stroll into a Sportsman’s Warehouse and buy a pistol.
I’m also no fan of abdicating our second amendment rights. However, I do think some limit has to be put on making projectile weapons available to the mentally ill and to people who are known to have used dope at any time during their lives.
@ Allison: Please try to read more carefully at the other websites you visit. Nowhere do I say or imply that Ms. Palin “wished this to happen”; what I say is that the use of inflammatory language is irresponsible and not a trait we would like to see in an elected leader. That’s quite different. That she didn’t mean to egg some mentally ill wretch on to attempt an assassination is undeniable; that what she (or her PAC) published was irresponsible and stupid is equally undeniable.
@funny. . .and I quote “No doubt Ms. Palin is proud of what she and her supporters have accomplished.” So you didn’t use the word wished. I stand behind my thoughts on this post. Your comments were just as inflammatory as the map in my view. Clearly you haven’t the sense to understand the consequences of your own irresponsible demagoguery.
And to address the map. I personally would not have used such a map and I do think that it was not well thought out for sure but to claim that it egged someone to kill is more than a little far fetched.
@ Alison: Nope. Sorry, I don’t think so. But what I do think is that taking a person’s objection to some mean act and turning it around to claim it’s abusive, bad sportsmanship, whining, or humorless is a classic bully’s tactic. That’s what we’re seeing in the current national discourse on this topic: classic bullying.
@ funny. . .lol, I was simply trying to get you to see that your own words are the same as what you claim everyone else is doing. Thats not bullying. Sarah Palins map was not a “mean” act and what I took offense to was your implication that she was responsible for or “proud of” this senseless tragedy. Obviously you are in denial that your own comments are inflammatory, while accusing others of the same crime. Anyway it has been a pleasure conversing with you, I wish you the best and pray that God will bless you. Good day.
@ Alison… Hmmmm… so, you don’t think a remark like “obviously you are in denial” is offensive, patronizing, bullying, or inflammatory? I must be oversensitive. 😉