These violent delights have violent ends. ~William Shakespeare

I am so deeply saddened by the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, the murder of her staff members, a federal judge and a nine year old girl. The little girl, just about Bean’s age was interested in politics. My mother used to take me to all sorts of political events and we’ve taken Bean.

Do we have to worry now about a crazy person, incited by the vitriolic and violent metaphors of talk show hosts and public figures (Glenn Beck and his Nazis his invitation to “meet Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson? Sarah Palin and her website with the crosshairs on this VERY congresswoman? Limbaugh saying that liberals are trying to destroy America, O’Reilly with Tiller the baby killer) will show up at ANY democratic function? Isn’t that the very definition of terrorism?

When did this happen to my country? When did it become commonplace that politics could take your life?

I’ve refrained, quite often, about writing about politics in my blog. Mainly because the rhetoric has been so out of control I didn’t know where to start and because I respect the fact that some of my friends have different opinions. Politics is best done face to face—where you can see that the person you disagree with is a human being just like you are—that has a family and work problems, and a mortgage (or a foreclosure). A person with different ideas, NOT an enemy.

But what happened yesterday is so horrifying. The people on TV and the politicians need to wake up—they have made this bed, but it is a nine year old girl lying dead in it. They have incited this violence and THEY need to stop the violent metaphors, they need to stop setting the stage for ‘culture wars,’ and to not “retreat, reload.” Stop, please stop.