Words have consequences! This is an understatement.
The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the death of six other innocent individuals in Tucson, Arizona on Jan 8, 2011 must give rise to change in the United States of America. The youngest person shot and killed was Christina Taylor Green, age 9, who was ther e to witness democracy in action. There are also an unconfirmed number of others shot. Reports have numbers as high as 19 persons wounded or dead.
I would urge everyone regardless of where they live in our world to embrace Gary Hart's statement on words having consequences. The United States of America has been wounded and the fix is not more rhetoric.
Gary Hart
Scholar in Residence at the University of Colorado
Posted: January 8, 2011 04:52 PM
Words Have Consequences
Over time, political rhetoric used by politicians and the media has become more inflamatory. The degree to which violent words and phrases are considered commonplace is striking. Candidates are "targeted". An opponent is "in the crosshairs". Liberals have to be "eliminated". Opponents are "enemies". This kind of language eminates largely from those who claim to defend American democracy against those who would destroy it, who are evil, and who want to "take away our freedoms".
Today we have seen the results of this rhetoric. Those with a megaphone, whether provided by public office or a media outlet, have responsibilities. They cannot avoid the consequences of their blatant efforts to inflame, anger, and outrage. We all know that there are unstable and potentially dangerous people among us. To repeatedly appeal to their basest instincts is to invite and welcome their predictable violence.
So long as we all tolerate this kind of irresponsible and dangerous rhetoric or, in the case of some commentators, treat it with delight, reward it, and consider it cute, so long will we place all those in public life, whom the provocateurs dislike, in the crosshairs of danger.This is carried out, and often rewarded, in the name of the Constitution, democratic rights and liberties, and patriotism is a mockery of all this nation claims to believe and almost all of us continue to struggle to preserve. America is better than this
