my congresswoman was shot today

[PamNY]

On what planet is that relevant??

This planet. It's completely relevant in a discussion of whether political vitriol contributed to this crime (I don't personally think it did, but that's probably age).

Partisan finger-pointing (featuring plenty of "my side is being treated unfairly" whining) is inevitable and completely useless, but pointing out the bipartisan nature of vitriol is valid.

[badgercat]

I hope we can all agree that Fred Phelps is a jerk, because it looks pretty certain that the Westboro Baptist Church will be descending upon our city to picket the funerals of the fallen. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0...?ref=fb&src=sp

[Owlie]

I hope we can all agree that Fred Phelps is a jerk, because it looks pretty certain that the Westboro Baptist Church will be descending upon our city to picket the funerals of the fallen. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0...?ref=fb&src=sp

I was going to ask "Do these people have any common decency?", but that would be a waste of effort.

Ugh. Just ugh.

[Eden]

That is just beyond sickening. They are even justifying killing a *child* - who's the baby killers.....

[Crankin]

I'm not going to get into the discussion about name calling... but needless to say, Trek's comments about mental health care is probably the most valid here. People with serious mental health issues (i.e.w/psychotic symptoms) can be influenced by the inflammatory comments of others. If anything, this speaks to the issue of mental health parity.
Oh, and the mayor I used to drink coffee with, that I mentioned in an earlier post? He is now a congressman from my old district. And he is also in the crosshairs on Palin's map.

[Trek420]

That is just beyond sickening. They are even justifying killing a *child* - who's the baby killers.....

Why am I not surprised? These nucking futz (hopefully we all agree) are at military funerals, Elizabeth Edwards funeral ...

Hopefully the Patriot Guard will be there so grieving families will not need to even see their hate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP6gneH1DRU

[OakLeaf]

DH lived in Tucson about the same time as Crankin lived in Tempe. His house was catty-corner from where Loughner now lives with his parents.

[lunacycles]

we all know how much was horribly wrong about this tragedy. Here's something that was miraculously right, and gives me some hope:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7230296n

[badgercat]

I just watched a live press conference from University Medical Center on local TV. 8 victims are still hospitalized there: 2 in good or fair condition, 5 in serious condition, and one in critical condition (Congresswoman Giffords). One other patient has already been discharged. Giffords and one of the serious condition patients are in ICU, but the rest are on "regular" wards. Giffords continues to respond to simple commands (apparently things like squeezing a hand, wiggling toes). Assessing any more complicated function than that would be next to impossible with the ventilator and the heavy sedation. Swelling in her brain does not seem to be a problem, but apparently that normally peaks on or around the 3rd day post-trauma (which would be tomorrow). The doctors who spoke seemed confident that all of the other victims will survive, and are optimistic about Giffords, though one remarked "She's not out of the woods yet."

Something that the head of the trauma department brought up that I appreciated hearing was that their job isn't only to "fix" people physically, but to try to make them "whole" again emotionally and socially. He referenced their team of psychologists, psyciatrists, social workers, etc, who all have experience with trauma patients and PTSD, and that they will be working with all the patients through their recovery.

Bottom line, I guess we can be cautiously optimistic for all of the victims remaining in the hospital today.

[Biciclista]

Sorry, the guy was a conservative (a registered republican in the state of Arizona),. And it's true that he was "not right" he had mental problems. But that's what happens when strong public figures rant and weak minds listen.
The ultimate responsibility lies in the hands of the shooter, but it is hard not to see the connection between what he did and what some of our loudest public voices are saying:


1. Rush Limbaugh: "I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus – living fossils – so we will never forget what these people stood for."

2. Senator Phil Gramm: "We're going to keep building the party until we're hunting Democrats with dogs."

3. Rep. James Hansen on Bill Clinton: Get rid of the guy. Impeach him, censure him, assassinate him."

4. Ann Coulter: "We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too."

5. Ann Coulter: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building."

6. Bill O'Reilly: "ll those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains."


I dare you to find a similar list quoting liberal or left leaning public figures.

One of the things that has saddened and disappointed me is the finger pointing towards Conservatives. Why are Conservative's being blamed for this? Apparently the alleged shooter posted to the Daily KOS... not exactly known for it's conservative leanings.

and just because he posted on Daily Kos doesn't mean he wasn't also posting on conservative websites, which they have carefully cleaned off since the shooting.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

[Crankin]

Hopefully, there is a community crisis team that can provide services to any member of the community who is being affected by this incident. It's very common for people who even just live near the scene to have symptoms of acute traumatic stress disorder, which is basically PTSD that lasts no longer than a month. Many times, there are people who fly in to provide these services when there's a full scale disaster, such as a hurricane or earthquake, terror incident. I know that some of my professors do this.
As for the victims, they will intensive work with a trauma specialist.

I find that I am still feeling affected by this! I got really upset when I saw a facebook posting from one of my closest friends from college. She was raving about how "crazy it is to be in AZ right now, with all this football pre-game pep rally crap going on." Is she deaf, dumb, and blind? Of course, I didn't say anything, but instead focused on my one friend who is very politically connected with many of the people that Rep. Giffords works with, and listened to her assessment of the situation.

[badgercat]

Hopefully, there is a community crisis team that can provide services to any member of the community who is being affected by this incident. It's very common for people who even just live near the scene to have symptoms of acute traumatic stress disorder, which is basically PTSD that lasts no longer than a month. Many times, there are people who fly in to provide these services when there's a full scale disaster, such as a hurricane or earthquake, terror incident. I know that some of my professors do this.
As for the victims, they will intensive work with a trauma specialist.

I know that the counseling wing of the Campus Health Service has opened its doors to anyone from the University who needs some help. I haven't heard specifically about crisis teams reaching out to the general public, but I was also at work 11 hours/day on Saturday and Sunday, so that doesn't mean they're not there--I just haven't been able to pay as much attention to the news as I would like.

I'm not sure how Tucson is being portrayed in the national/world media, but we really do have some forward-thinking folks running our city, and I'm sure things are in place (or at least in the works) for members of our community to help each other through this time.

[Desert Tortoise]

I listened to the press conference on the radio. It was very encouraging to hear the spokesperson surgeon talk, at length, about the mental care of not only the surviving patients but also of the family members and medical staff involved. He said it has also been very traumatic for the staff at the hospital and that there is more to healing than the physical wounds.

He also expressed his appreciation for the community's support and how that also helps with PTSD and such. I really liked how he linked physical care, mental care and support. They seem to get the big picture with respect to the trauma.

And thankfully they are so respectful of the patients' privacy and not releasing details before their time.

dt

[Crankin]

I haven't seen any negative portrayals of Tucson. It's more overall thoughts about AZ in general.
Personally, I realized too late that I should have been living in Tucson, instead of the Phoenix area! Of course, I did send son #2 to U of A, but I guess it was enough to send him off to enlist in the Marines!

[Biciclista]

when i think of Tucson (and i've visited there a couple times)I will always think of those 6 people who were killed. they look like they were good people, and I know a lot of nice folks that live there.