5 dead in attack on Congresswoman

Those of us a certain age can remember the horror.

During the turmoil that was America during the '60s and early '70s, we lost poltical leaders to the gun on a regular basis, from JFK to Bobby Kennedy; from Malcolm X to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Even the conservative wing of American politics did not go unscathed with the late Alabama Gov. George Wallace on the wrong end of a sidearm that left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

I thought we were all done with that until the news out of Tucson, Ariz. that a madman with a Glock opened fire on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords with a shower of bullets that killed six -- including a federal judge, an aide and a child. Giffords remains in critical condition in a Tucson-area hospital.

Then, reality struck when the Associated Press let loose with a piece that states that during the first three months of 2010 there were 42 threats against federal lawmakers -- three times the number over the previous year. Saturday's assault wasn't the first against Giffords, the AP added. In March, somebody kicked in or shot out a window in her Tucson office, hours after she voted for the health care bill.

What makes this even more chilling is the following day, Giffords was among 20 House Democratic supporters of the health care bill targeted -- literally -- by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on her Facebook page.

Palin's page featured a map pf the United States, with the crosshairs of a rifle scope imposed over each of the 20 Democrats' districts where Palin and John McCain had done well during the 2008 presidential election.

"When people do that, they got to realize there are consequences to that action," Giffords said at the time.

Palin, I hope, is hung out as an accomplice to this murderous attack on these victims, our system.

She and her Tea Party cronies are as responsible as anybody for the grief and greed sweeping the American political system today. Palin and the rest of these ledge-hangers have widened the gap between civility and the guerilla warfare that has become modern-day politics. By suggesting even remotely that these people need to be put into the crosshairs of a lunatic is unacceptable even by today's standards of hatred. The smoking gun rests in her hand.

As much as I dislike, distrust and disparage this woman, I would never suggest that somebody take her out in a hail of bullets.

No, I've seen what happens to a nation when its leaders are gunned down because they suggest the end of war, the extension of civil rights or a point of view that may be a tad out of sync.

We become paranoid, fearful, distrustful.

Only the courageous speak out because speaking out can get you killed.

Where is the civility? Where is the morality?

It's nonexistent, on par with the right-to-lifers who are willing to waste an abortion doctor because of the sanctity of life; a president who unleashes an army against Iraq because he's pissed at Saddam Hussein for dissin' his old man; members of the Tea Party who would do harm to another simply because of their politics.

God help us.