my congresswoman was shot today

[hebe]

My heart goes out to all the families and communities changed and hurt by this, and especially to the families who have lost loved ones. I can't understand how someone felt a gun was the answer.

[Crankin]

After almost a day of reflecting on this and seeing pictures/hearing the stories of the various people involved on the news, it dawned on me why this feels so personal. The people who were injured or killed remind me so much of what I loved about Arizona... circa 1978 Arizona. Strong, independent politicians, smart people who often left the state to attend college and came back to serve the people in government, education, family businesses, farming. When I was in grad school the first time, I used sit and drink coffee every morning during the summer session, in the MU at ASU with Harry Mitchell, then the mayor of Tempe. But, he was also a social studies teacher at Tempe High School. Just a true model of selfless public service. I doubt something like that would happen today.

[KnottedYet]

All night long I was haunted by the quote of Giffords telling Palin the gunsight hit list map on Palin's website was dangerous and irresponsible to publish. Unstable people do get swayed by these things.

That's a woman with political experience and political sense.

(I'm grossed out by the hit list map. Across the top it says "We've diagnosed the problem... help us prescribe the solution." http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/Vi...sshairs_110108 )

[Mr. Bloom]

All night long I was haunted by the quote of Giffords telling Palin the gunsight hit list map on Palin's website was dangerous and irresponsible to publish. Unstable people do get swayed by these things.

...and unstable people can be just as easily swayed by Projective Identification.

This is a terrible thing that happened. Shall we blame Sarah Palin? Shall we blame It on Giffords response? None of us know...Bad things happen...let's stop looking for someone to blame. This all could be a sad irony, but either way, left and right agree that it is a terrible thing.

I'm very upset because this is an UNamerican outcome and an American tragedy.

Disclaimer: I'm not a Palin fan