Does angry speech or violence in metaphor provoke violence in real life? Some thoughts:
On the
Dailykos, a writer who claims he had worked hard and spent his money to elect
Congrsswoman Giffords was angry about her stances on issues.
Three days before the shootings,
he wrote why he despised her and
typed, "She is Dead to Me, she is dead to me she is dead to me."
Is that phrase now to be banned? (it was removed from the daily kos site)
-
Sarah Palin put the congresswoman's district in the (guns) "crosshairs" on her webpage--should she take blame? (has since removed from web).
Are we hatefully promoting violence with phrases and symbols? Do we ban them?
Here is one comprehensive listing of violence in politics::
Violence in Mediaand
HEREand i am searching for other compilations from differing views.
like
this one from daily kos,
this and
this and
huffingtonpostSince this Jared Lee Loughner was remembered by co-students for reading poetry in class
in a way which scared people-- grabbing his crotch, dancing around the room, yelling-- is that enough to finally
Ban Rap
music?
Rap music
causes violence?
(2 live crew lyrics
HERE) sample it i Dare You
The
Violence of Rap--page 84 (ciminology text)
I have serious free speech concerns.
[
So does the father of the little child who was murdered,(-speaking of the idea of taking away various freedoms to match each fairly rare violent event (his words) in a heart-wrenching interview:
HERE]
This horrible event
in my opinioin
should be provoking a national discussion about how to assist those exhibiting mental instability or violence who do not seem to want help.
Here is my lengthy post about the Arizona tragedy.
It may be that this horrible event will chill out some of the mean-spirited vitriol in our speech. But our speech simply reflects what is in our hearts. What is in the hearts of those you know?
my question:
Do we allow free speech or not?
How far will we go to ban humor? Is lenny bruce rolling over?
Is there really a
double or triple standard in how we excuse or allow vitriolic speech or humor?
popular images from a couple years past:
"sarah palin is a milp: mom i'd like to punch"
popular 2 years ago
gun at bush's head stamps
and more politically incorrect humor at the bottom of the page HERE:
Monday, Jan 10, 2011 at 11:48 AM EST
"While Americans are grappling to understand the Arizona tragedy, the absolute vacuum of leadership on both sides is staggering.
We live in a country that has been struck by John Hinckley Jr. and Sirhan Sirhan, Lee Harvey Oswald and Mark David Chapman. And one that’s been hit by terrorists like Timothy McVeigh, the DC Sniper John Allen Muhammad, the Fort Hood killer Nidal Hasan, and 19 highjackers all claiming to be freedom fighters. You’d think we’d understand the difference between madmen and terrorists.
All evidence points to the fact that the assailant from this weekend was severely mentally disturbed. His belief system was not rational by any modern political standard.
He was an atheist, believed George W. Bush was responsible for 9/11, feared a global currency, cited the Communist Manifesto as one of his favorite books and thought the Mars rover landing was staged. These are not the opinions of a coherent individual.
Far too often, we have seen in our schools and in our post offices, acts of violence from misfits of society. While we can look for the warning signs, these horrific events will always be with every nation.
Though violence is a human problem,
every American citizen can make a personal choice today.
Do you believe that Americans, from any walk of life, can convince themselves they are freedom fighters and carry out acts of violence? My answer is yes. If you agree then you must take a clear stand.
Turning these horrific events into an opportunity for a political attack is a very childish response to a very grown-up problem. This is not about winning a political blame game. Atheists are not to blame. Those who hate George W. Bush are not to blame. Those who don’t believe in space travel are not to blame. Jared Lee Loughner is to blame. Period.
This tragedy should not be used as an opportunity to try and bend reality to retroactively place a madman on the other side of the aisle. It should be a time to pray for the victims and their families, a time that we can all come together and state that violence is off limits for all sides in a Republic. It’s a time for us to state with a unified passion that we won’t accept anyone who threatens or actually carries out violence.
Denouncing violence from all sides including your own does not make your movement any less just. To quote
Martin Luther King:"But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. "I challenge all Americans,
left or right, regardless if you’re a politician, pundit, painter, priest, parishioner, poet or porn star to agree with all of the following.
•I denounce violence, regardless of ideological motivation.
•I denounce anyone, from the Left, the Right or middle, who believes physical violence is the answer to whatever they feel is wrong with our country.
•I denounce those who wish to tear down our system and rebuild it in their own image, whatever that image may be.
•I denounce those from the Left, the Right or middle, who call for riots and violence as an opportunity to bring down and reconstruct our system.
•I denounce violent threats and calls for the destruction of our system – regardless of their underlying ideology – whether they come from the Hutaree Militia or Frances Fox Piven.
•I hold those responsible for the violence, responsible for the violence. I denounce those who attempt to blame political opponents for the acts of madmen.
•I denounce those from the Left, the Right or middle that sees violence as a viable alternative to our long established system of change made within the constraints of our constitutional Republic.
I will stand with anyone willing to sign that pledge. Today I make a personal choice. I urge leaders of both sides and all walks of life to join me as all Americans joined hands on 9.12.2001.
I believe that we must change ourselves to hold on to our republic. That’s why I have been talking about e4. Enlightenment. Education. Empowerment. Entrepreneurship. It’s a personal solution for all of us to become the people we were born to be, not the people we’ve allowed ourselves to become. I have called for a personal revolution; change ourselves in order to change the world. Those who live with honor and are responsible to themselves and their families will be the key to the future of our Republic, not those playing political games.
While everyone seems to be focused on politics, I instead choose to focus on Christina Green, the nine year old victim killed Saturday. Born on 9.11.2001, she is now a victim of another case of horrific violence. I hope we can all remember Christina by acting the way we did when she was one day old: To focus on values and principles, to use common sense and stop playing politics."
from glenn beck
...We don’t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was. She’s been the target of violence before. And for those wondering why a Blue Dog Democrat, the kind Republicans might be able to work with, might be a target, the answer is that she’s a Democrat who survived what was otherwise a GOP sweep in Arizona, precisely because the Republicans nominated a Tea Party activist. (Her father says that “the whole Tea Party” was her enemy.) And yes, she was on Sarah Palin’s infamous “crosshairs” list. [...]
You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.
from Paul Krugman
The Huffington Post has a lot of articles, one about why we have so much mental illness...
Update: A Victim of the shooting, James Eric Fuller, a 63-year-old survivor of the Arizona shootings, was arrested and taken for psychiatric examination after threatening Tucson tea party cofounder Trent Humphries, according to ABC News. Video HERE and HERE
The good that might come
of this senseless, wanton violence:
An exploration into
how we can better discern who is in need of our help,
how to help those who may not ask for it,
how to gently move those enduring mental torture
or instability or violent thoughts
into a peaceful place...
