We would feel remiss if we did not join the chorus of concern regarding the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 8.
We recognize Lincoln County has little reason to be concerned with the fortunes of a Congresswoman who serves a metropolitan area of the Great American Southwest, but in the sense that a public official was shot while serving the people’s interest, her case involves us all.
On several occasions prior, we have noted and deplored on our pages the increasingly embittered and divisive tone of our national and local political conversation. Suffice it to say, it is easier to argue by insults and derision than to convince by logic and reason.
On many occasions in the last couple years, we have edited “Letters to Editor” to remove incendiary language. On more than one occasion, we have declined to print letters whose language borders on sedition. We do not make such decisions lightly.
We do not join the chorus that lays the blame for this shooting solely at the feet of our collective overheated political rhetoric but by the same token, we find attempts to explain it all away misses the point.
The alleged assassin in this case, Jared Lee Loughner, is someone who might charitably be described as mentally unbalanced; someone who would have likely found the motivation to do what he wanted to do somewhere, but to say the tone of our national conversation played no part is disingenuous at best.
Such attempts discount the fact that Loughner attacked a national level politician as opposed to a family member, a former employer or girlfriend, or the college that recently suspended him, any one of whom would have been easier, and more likely targets.
As we have asserted in the past, we cannot expect someone else to come in and change the equation for us. National media and political interests have little reason to change the way they do business and keeping people entrenched and divided is good for their business.
If we want change, if we want to improve the tone of conversation, we have to do it ourselves and we have to start here.
