What Now?

It happened.
The inevitable occurred on Saturday in Tucson, Arizona when a crazed gunman opened fire on a crowd at a store in the town where a meet and greet with 8th District U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (pictured upper left) was taking place.
A lot is still being sorted out and will be for some time as the feds and local police investigate the incident.
When I say the inevitable happened, what is meant is by all the "threats" that we hear about from politicians and other people surrounding them.
The "Tea Party" seems to be the scapegoat so far and that's only because people need a target to point at in a time like this.
There are many good people who are genuinely concerned about the state of our country over the past decade and beyond.
There's good reason for that as many factors have contributed to the high anxiety people are feeling as they lose their jobs, homes, economic well being, etc.
Normally, and yesterday was not an exception, there is some sarcasm and attempted "wit" thrown around regarding the controversial tea party and it's top public face, Sarah Palin.
This is not an attempt to politicize things surrounding what happened yesterday.
It is simply an observation from one concerned American citizen who has seen a lot of things in 46 years.
From an early age, I heard people criticizing politicians, starting with then President Richard M. Nixon. It has continued right through our current leader Barack Obama.
The president issued a statement after the news spread about the shootings that killed (by last count) six people and wounded 14 others, including Giffords, who so far is surviving being shot through her head.
Amazing!
A nine-year old girl was killed among the six people, and it is said she was born on September 11, 2001. How ironic is it that she came in on a national tragedy and her short life ends on another one.
Domestic terrorism is for real and it came to mainstream light when the federal building was bombed in Oklahoma City in 1995.
Eventually, Timothy McVeigh was tried and later executed for the crime.
People know all about September 11, 2001 and what happened on that day.
So here we are nine years and four months later and a man named Jared Loughman takes things into his own hands and shoots people.
Violence is not the answer.
It is never the answer.
We live in a society that practically glorifies violence.
It's everywhere.
There are frickin' comedies (TV shows, movies) that attempt to make violence seem funny.
It ain't funny when someone gets hurt or killed.
Granted, that's fictional but still there are those unstable individuals (Loughman and many others) who take what they see or hear or read and run with it.
Literally.
Remember the guy who flew a plane into the IRS building? How about the people carrying guns with them to political rallies?

The tea party crowd carrying signs reading, "WE CAME UNARMED- THIS TIME!"

What is that all about?

Which brings us back to Palin and her "SarahPac" website that had the "cross hairs" targets on the map of the United States.
There is a target (one of three) on the state of Arizona (see picture upper right) and Gabrielle Giffords' name appears on that list.
It has since been scrubbed from the site.
A little too late perhaps?
Palin and others involved with the tea party have to be more responsible when it comes to making statements like that.
Remember Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota, 6th District), a U.S. House Representative, calling for people to be "armed and dangerous" when it came to a tax plan of President Obama?
How about then U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle calling for "second amendment remedies"
when disagreeing with political decisions.
There was also the incident on the steps of the Congress last March when law makers were entering the building to vote on the Health Care Reform bill that eventually passed where "protesters" (mostly affiliated with the tea party) were spitting on elected representatives and yelling obscenities at them.
Now this shooting of an elected official in Arizona occurs.
No doubt security will be beefed up even more and be careful what you say or write if you do attempt to contact your own representatives in the House or Senate.
You may get a visit from the feds.
Let us get a grip people and look seriously at what is going on around our country.
"A house divided will not stand" is a famous quote and I feel that's where we are at.
We have to stand together if we want to continue to be called the UNITED States of America.
Not to be naive, because there will be future occurrences like the one yesterday, but we as Americans have to ask ourselves, "What are we? Where are we going?"
The answer is within us all.
We just have to find it and apply it.