The climate

In a signed editorial discussing the Tucson shooting published in the Times News on January 10, Ron Gower said this: “What’s very disturbing about this shooting, besides the actual tragedy, are the news accounts following it.”  

He went on to decry the commentators who criticized Sarah Palin for contributing to the atmosphere that led to the violence.  He said it was wrong to shift blame from anyone except the gunman.

I know that Sarah Palin did not intend for a nine-year-old girl or Rep. Giffords or all the other victims to be shot down in a shopping center.  I am sure that Ms. Palin is shocked and saddened.  She never intended those statements about reloading and the website with the targets to lead to actual blood being spilled.

I want to choose my words carefully here and talk about Shenandoah.  I don’t think our new Congressman Lou Barletta ever advocated or condoned the actions of the four young men who beat a Mexican immigrant to death in Shenandoah.  While I don’t know Mr. Barletta personally, I’m sure he was shocked by that fatal beating.

Nevertheless, I strongly believe that Mayor Barletta contributed to the climate that encouraged those young men to act as they did.  When officials ostracize a minority, criticize members of that minority for increasing crime and urban blight, pass laws to marginalize that minority, and give speech after speech about “illegals,” they must take some responsibility when other people turn on members of that minority in ways those officials might not have intended.

When people call for “second amendment solutions,” talk about “reloading,” claim the president is not a U.S. citizen, bring loaded weapons to political rallies, scream obscenities, and castigate liberals as “traitors” (as Anne Coulter, a Times News columnist has done), those people bear some responsibility when unstable people act upon those words.