It was one year ago that Phoebe Prince, the beautiful and tragically unstable teen, took her own life in South Hadley, Massachusetts. In the year since, evidence has come to light of a young girl dislodged by emotional damage who was prone to cutting herself in order to “transfer the emotional pain to physical pain where it’s easier to deal with.” It appears the young girl’s problems extended beyond the circumstances that will constitute the criminal prosecution set to continue in the new year. I don’t think it’s a great stretch to those who’ve known depressives, or those with other, more violent, psychological ailments, to assert that there is little that can be done, once the darkness takes hold, to halt the intentions of the disturbed. However, that does not excuse the six teenagers who will face charges of violating the civil rights of Ms. Prince with their cyber (and other-wise) taunts of “whore” and “slut”. While this hateful vitriol (to overuse the phrase of our week) did not kill the girl, it successfully promoted a culture of hate and division.
Nor is Sarah Palin in the clear. Let me state this emphatically: Sarah Palin is in no way to blame for the tragedy in Tucson this week, will never face charges, and there is little to be said for those on the left who would use the suggestion to promote their own agendas (though I actually can’t name anyone who has actually blamed her). But the disingenuous manner in which Palin has reacted to this situation leaves, again, much in her character to be desired. In the days that followed the shooting in Tucson, Palin simultaneously denied that her ‘target board’ was in any way an influence as she removed it from her PAC website. Her aides took to the radio waves, one incredulously suggesting that they were not gun sights, but surveying targets. Now, she comes forward to denounce her critics of ‘blood libel’ for suggesting that she’s done a thing in the wrong with her ‘don’t retreat, reload’ language. Blood libel? Sacre’Poutine! Does that crazy thing even know what that means? Plain language: You don’t get to run around the theatre yelling fire and then act astounded when some nut job actually starts one.
And this goes especially for Sharron Angle, who comes out to defend her ‘second amendment remedies’ comedy. It is a FACT that she was using no metaphor. The quote, taken in it’s FULL context:
“...the nation is arming. What are they arming for if it isn't that they are so distrustful of their government? They're afraid they'll have to fight for their liberty in more Second Amendment kinds of ways?... That's why I look at this as almost an imperative. If we don't win at the ballot box, what will be the next step?”
I don’t know, Ms. Angle, but if it has anything to do with the fact that Arizonan’s have, in the last week, doubled their purchase of the weapon Jared Lee Loughner used to murder a nine year old girl, a federal judge and four others; used to wound fourteen more, including a United States Congresswoman, I am very afraid.
Hey Sarah, how’s that hatey, killey, reloady, crosshairsy thing working out for ya?
