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.
“He … feared a global currency …[t]hese are not the opinions of a coherent individual.”
ReplyDeleteYou may want to rethink that one. Do you really think that the goal of “global governance” doesn’t come with a global currency?
Besides, you’ve talked about a global currency on the air before (can’t find the episode right now), and also here “Glenn Beck: No follow up question?” (http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/33218/)
If President Obama does not call for a renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban during his State of the Union address, it means he is materially concerned for his safety as president, and by extension, the office of the president of the United States (and all the responsibilities that flow from it) are materially subject to the political agenda of a single special interest group, the National Rifle Association.
ReplyDelete"And now we know that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob." -- FDR
Tucson Hero Blasts Right Wing ON FOX - Jaw Dropping!
ReplyDeleteRun time: 02:11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y6ipfbsndk
Just watch this video and tell me the right-wing isn't causing this country to go out of control!In case any of you haven't found out yet, the clown that pulled the trigger in this tragedy was enabled by the gun lobby and lack of political will to keep the ban on assault weapons legislation in place. The crazy kid used a legal 33 round magazine in his semi automatic hand gun while shooting and killing all of those poor people. 33 rounds went off before this troubled kid had to try to reload - the point when he was tackled and stopped.
To deflect attention from fault they will call the kid crazy, the situation an unfortunate tragedy and likely some other obvious truths. Clearly the issue is reasonable gun regulation. Unfortunately, regulation and reason doesn't sit well with the types that are o.k. with the makers and distributors of the very weapons used to commit this act keeping the profits that were made ruining all of those lives.
Is there any legitimate purpose for anyone (sane or insane) to have 33 round magazines? There is no place in a civil society for guns. That is why the right-wing must be jailed NOW!
Watch this video of Al Sharpton on Ed Schultz. He puts the right-wing in their place.Run time: 11:31
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t_YWepluFQ
Chris, i applaud Mr. Beck for saying what he said and denying violence, but if you want me or other non-followers of him to honestly believe that he will walk the walk he has to do better than spending the first paragraph emphasizing mostly Muslim terrorists and the shooters seemingly liberal beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI'm not stupid enough to miss that he assigns lunacy to views that include Atheism, Truthers, the communist manifesto, and global currency, knowing that his followers typically relate 3 out of 4 to liberals. In the end i guess this is the best we will get out of him so ya ake what you can get.
Joe I hate to say this but three out of four terrorist acts have been by liberals whether you choose to believe it or not. He is just giving us a clear representative of what the truth is. I'm sure you see it differently but why don't you take a peice of paper and fold it in half. On one side you can put the right-wing terrorists and on the left put all the liberal terrorists. You can do the same thing with the terrorist that have done it in the name of Jesus and on the other in the name of Allah. At least Beck has come out in a mature and leadership maner unlike the president,Democratic Party and Republican Party leaders. Someone needs to stand up against those that are the problem here. So please take an honest look at what really is. You know in your mind what is said about the malitias and how they are looked at. The right-wing also look crosseyed at the malitia for good reason. We have looked at the real threats and those imaginary ones. Will you do the same?
ReplyDeleteted just because some Democrats say that he's a right-winger dand that it is our 'rhetoric' that is causing people to do this is just dishonest at best. Maybe you need to ask why the sheriff is helping out the defence of this murder? The sheriff and many on the left are just helping the defence by saying it's everyones fault but the murder that pulled the trigger. Why is it that the left tend to take the blame away from the criminal and place it on the right-wing speech and guns? It is wrong what the left has done to politicaly capitalize on the death of all these people. You need to start looking in the mirror at where the real hate speech and violence has been coming from. The left have been calling the Tea Partiers violent since the beginning of the protests. And the only violence has been against the Tea Party. The number of vidoes of left wing attacks on Tea Partiers will keep you very buisy.
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday morning’s “Morning Joe,“ MSNBC political analyst Mark Halperin summarized the recent response to the Arizona tragedy with the audacious claim that politicians and the media ”behaved pretty well.” But with one caveat: the “good behavior” can’t be extended to conservative commentators.
ReplyDelete“I just want to single out one thing,” Halperin said. “I don’t want to over-generalize but I think the media and the politicians have behaved pretty well so far. The thing I’m most concerned about now is the anger on the right-wing commenatariat: on Fox, and George Will, and other conservatives are, in some cases justifiably upset at liberals. But they’re turning this right now, in the last 24 hours, back into the standard operating procedure of all of this is war and fodder for content, rather than trying to bring the country together.”
That caused host Joe Scarborough to do a double take: “Wait a second, Mark. I think they would say that you have that backwards. That a shooting was turned into fodder to attack conservatives.”
Halperin reached into the biblical analogy bag to respond. Conservatives, he said, just should have turned the other cheek: “They’re right. But rather than seizing on it and turning the other cheek, they are back at their war stations. And that’s not going to help us.”
The tweets are stunning, disturbing, and downright shocking.
ReplyDeleteAfter the left shamelessly began its campaign to connect Saturday’s shooting to Sara Palin, Twitter users quickly picked up on the sentiment and responded with violent, hateful speech. Some were succinct: “I hope Sarah Palin dies.” Others were prophetic: “So…will everyone be satisfied then when Palin is assassinated? You know she’s next.” And some were downright vulgar: “Palin is a murdering bi*** who deserves a crosshair on HER house so Al-Qaeda can come shoot HER family. See how that feels, republican trash.”
Reportedly, Loughner had a history of making public death threats that been ignored by the Pima County Sheriff's Department...
ReplyDeleteWhat the The Cholla Jumps site is alleging - and which has not yet been confirmed- is the following:
Jared Loughner has been making death threats by phone to many people in Pima County including staff of Pima Community College, radio personalities and local bloggers. When Pima County Sheriff's Office was informed, his deputies assured the victims that he was being well managed by the mental health system. It was also suggested that further pressing of charges would be unnecessary and probably cause more problems than it solved as Jared Loughner has a family member that works for Pima County.
The question is, is this true?
Obama is likely to deliver a speech about tolerance, a theme that could also be featured in his State of the Union address on Jan. 25.
ReplyDeleteHowever, with liberals and conservatives assuming their assigned battle stations over whether gun laws and partisan rhetoric are to blame, the White House is undecided about the exact message the president will send.
It is not clear whether ideology motivated the alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, and Obama's advisers may conclude it unwise for the president to lecture the nation on mutual respect - which could leave him open to criticism that he is using the tragedy for political gain.
"The first thought, the desperate hope, that the losers in November of 2010 had was that they could revitalize their political fortunes because of this unfortunate shooting of a congresswoman in Arizona. That was the most important thing to them -- and that, to me, is sick." -Rush
ReplyDeleteImplicating a conservative tie to this heinous act of violence or to Jared Lee Loughner, who is no conservative, is nothing short of a naked campaign to criminalize conservative thought.
ReplyDeleteThere is a disturbing chill in the air according to the leftist media. Threats of violence and rumor of murder are taking center stage instead of reporting legitimate public outrage about the passage of Obamacare. You need not click far online to hear another person refer to Glenn Beck as "dangerous", yet they can never claim specifically why. Despite their rhetoric, the media refuses to follow up with what makes a man, who has spent hours just this year begging people to remain peaceful, so obscenely dangerous.
ReplyDeleteGlaringly obvious in this latest round of reports is that there are no specific examples of alleged threats of violence cited. I can only find one specific threat that caused the FBI to swoop in and ask a speaker to wear a bullet-proof vest on the tip that the speaker would be gunned down by an assassin. But that speaker was Glenn Beck.
Whether this is a shortcut to 2nd Amendment action, valid concern, or just a bunch of crybaby progressive politicians over reacting to criticism, it's hard to tell. But Obama's desire to continue ramming through the most divisive legislation -- against his own creed -- isn't helping bring calm to even the most peaceful conservatives. And while the evidence of a violent right is scarce, there's no limit to liberals attempting to make conservatives look evil.
Before letting the media continue to perpetuate a stereotype that may not actually exist at all, let me give you the facts that U.S. journalists refuse to cite. Let me show you where real violence comes from, and I don't even need to mention the millions of babies killed every year by progressives or even the tens of millions of people murdered by their communist heroes.
It was not the fear of conservative violence that caused Ann Coulter's speech to be cancelled this week.
It was a liberal who bit the finger off a man who disagreed with him on healthcare.
It was Obama-loving Amy Bishop who took a gun to work and murdered co-workers.
Joseph Stack flew his plane into the IRS building after writing an anti-conservative manifesto.
It was liberals who destroyed AM radio towers outside of Seattle.
It's liberals who burn down Hummer dealerships.
It was progressive SEIU union thugs who beat a black conservative man who spoke his mind.
It's doubtful that a conservative fired shots into a GOP campaign headquarters.
In fact, Democrats have no monopoly on having their offices vandalized.
Don't forget it was Obama's friend Bill Ayers who used terrorism as a tool for political change. SDS is still radical, with arrests in 2007 and the storming of the CATO Institute in July 2008.
It was a liberal who was sentenced to two years for bringing bombs and riot shields to the Republican National Convention in 2008.
It was a liberal who threatened to kill a government informant who infiltrated her Austin-based group that planned to bomb the RNC.
It was liberals who assaulted police in Berkeley.
It was liberals who intimidated and threw rocks through the windows of researchers.
The two Black Panthers who stood outside polls intimidating people with nightsticks were probably not right-wingers.
Every time the G20 gets together, it's not conservatives who destroy property and cause chaos.
I could literally go on and on, but let's try to have some perspective here. Violence is a product of the fringe, on either side, and it's sickening to try to use it for political advantage. Those who commit violence in the name of politics deserve political change no more than they deserve leniency in sentencing. Violence furthers no cause. The only call to action that violence has ever motivated Americans to is the retaliation on attackers. Somehow I think the liberals know that very well.
The media and politicians who are trying to construct a meme of conservative violence as we run up to the 2010 elections should only face the weapon they fear most; the ballot.