{"id":24944,"date":"2011-01-10T08:54:22","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T15:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=24944"},"modified":"2011-01-11T07:47:50","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T14:47:50","slug":"after-the-giffords-shooting-a-crossroads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/01\/after-the-giffords-shooting-a-crossroads\/","title":{"rendered":"After the Giffords shooting, a crossroads"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Standing next to a sheriff\u2019s deputy at a town-hall meeting<\/a> hosted by then-U.S. Rep. Harry Teague in the summer of 2009, I had an uncomfortable thought.<\/p>\n

It would have been easy for one or two armed people to walk into the commission chambers at the Do\u00f1a Ana County Government Center and shoot both deputies and Teague before anyone else knew what was happening.<\/p>\n

I was half expecting such an incident somewhere across the nation at the time. Congress was debating the controversial health care law, tensions were high, and there had been death threats against members of Congress.<\/p>\n

For nearly a year and a half, I was relieved that such an event didn\u2019t happen. But I thought about the possibility often. And on Saturday, I was devastated to learn that my fears had come true.<\/p>\n

We still don\u2019t know exactly what motivated Jared Lee Loughner to shoot Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head, kill six others including U.S. District Judge John Roll, and injure a dozen more. There are signs he was mentally unstable. He reportedly leaned to the left<\/a> politically. There\u2019s also evidence that some of his writings are based on ideas from the right<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s one thing I\u2019m comfortable saying in laying some blame for this tragedy. We the people, and our politicians, political groups and media, have ramped up the violent rhetoric to a level that only serves to spread hate and division, and thus encourages such tragedies. We all share some of the blame for this shooting because we have tolerated \u2013 and some of us have even used \u2013 violent rhetoric in our political discourse.<\/p>\n

A climate in which violent acts are bound to happen<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s not clear that Loughner was \u2013 or was not \u2013 directly influenced by violent rhetoric such as Sarah Palin\u2019s telling followers, \u201cDon\u2019t retreat, reload,\u201d and putting up a map<\/a> on her Web site showing gun sites over the districts of Giffords and others she wanted to defeat. What is clear is that such rhetoric creates a climate in which violent acts are bound to happen.<\/p>\n

As long as we tolerate violent rhetoric and the climate it creates, it may be only a matter of time before another member of Congress is gunned down.<\/p>\n

I single out Palin because hers is among the most blatant of recent examples of violent rhetoric from a public official. Those who have more access to the media, like Palin, have a louder voice, and thus a greater duty to watch what they say.<\/p>\n

And while the rhetoric has been significantly worse from the right in recent years, examples are plentiful from the left and right \u2013 from politicians including President Barack Obama<\/a> and Rep. Michele Bachmann<\/a>, from media outlets including FOX News<\/a> and Daily Kos<\/a>, and from citizens, including those who held up signs advocating for the killing of George W. Bush<\/a> while he was president.<\/p>\n

The use of violent rhetoric is and certainly should be protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That doesn\u2019t mean we should be using such language. But we do \u2013 in our political discourse, in our churches, and in the media. We use violent rhetoric to elicit emotional responses and get people involved.<\/p>\n

By \u201cwe,\u201d I include myself. If I\u2019ve used violent rhetoric in my 13 years as a journalist \u2013 and I\u2019m pretty sure that I occasionally have \u2013 I apologize for it. It\u2019s not any more appropriate coming from me than it is from Glen Beck.<\/p>\n

Which path will we take?<\/h3>\n

Following this shooting, America is at a crossroads. In these uber-partisan times, we need to decide which path we\u2019re going to take.<\/p>\n

We can continue to choose to view each other with distrust and hate. We can continue to believe those who disagree with us are enemies, and use language that reflects that belief and divides us even further. We can allow ourselves to be torn apart by our division.<\/p>\n

Or we can tone it down. We can stop trying to convince people that the other side is the enemy. We can stop implicitly or explicitly condoning violence against each other. We can instead choose to reach out and try to understand the viewpoints of those who are different from us.<\/p>\n

Together, if we were to choose mutual respect and understanding, we could build a struggling America into a stronger nation.<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t an easy path. I\u2019m an independent and a moderate not because it\u2019s my natural tendency to gravitate to the middle, but because I work every day to try to understand and respect others\u2019 viewpoints, and because I carry a deep belief in the constitutional principle that it takes the collective deliberation of all of us to find the path forward.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s difficult to show respect for someone with whom I disagree. I confess that I consider Palin a disgusting caricature of right-wing extremism who contributes to the division and violence that plagues our society. I want her to admit that her violent rhetoric has contributed to a dangerous climate that includes a very real threat against members of Congress and others.<\/p>\n

Likewise, I confess that I was constantly infuriated by Keith Olbermann\u2019s \u201cWorst Person in the World\u201d segment until he suspended it<\/a> in November. I watched that segment take quotes out of context and twist words in order to make people on the right look stupid and evil. Through doing that, Olbermann promoted division and hatred.<\/p>\n

Olbermann\u2019s defense of the segment even as he suspended it was equally maddening.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my hope that by admitting publicly my biases against Palin and Olbermann, I am starting a dialogue and opening myself up to the possibility of gaining a better understanding of who they are and why they do what they do.<\/p>\n

Because toning down the violent rhetoric won\u2019t be enough to fix our problems. We have to seek to understand and find a way to respect each other, rather than viewing each other with distrust and hate.<\/p>\n

Call me an idealist, but I believe Americans can be mature enough to handle the freedom and the responsibility given to us by our Constitution, and especially our First Amendment. I hope I\u2019m right.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Commentary archives<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We the people, and our politicians, political groups and media, all share some of the blame for this tragedy because we have tolerated \u2013 and some of us have even used \u2013 violent rhetoric that only serves to spread hate and division. Now we have to decide where to go from here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[142,186,134,116],"class_list":["post-24944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-crime","tag-culture","tag-media","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}