The "Right" in America

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head Saturday by a gunman who opened fire outside a grocery store during a meeting with voters, killing a federal judge and five others in a rampage that rattled the country and left Americans questioning whether divisive politics had pushed the suspect over the edge.

Giffords, 40, is a three-term moderate Democrat who narrowly won re-election in November against a tea party candidate as conservatives across the country sought to throw her from office over her support of the health care law. Her office in Tucson was vandalized in the hours after the House passed the overhaul last March as anger over the law spread across the country.

"For example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the thing is, that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have to realize that there are consequences to that action," Giffords said in an interview with MSNBC.

AND THIS ABOUT HER LAST CHALLENGER FOR THE OFFICE:
During his campaign effort to unseat Giffords in November, Republican challenger Jesse Kelly held fundraisers where he urged supporters to help remove Giffords from office by joining him to shoot a fully loaded M-16 rifle. Kelly is a former Marine who served in Iraq and was pictured on his website in military gear holding his automatic weapon and promoting the event.

Fortunately she's not dead, she's apparently awake after surgery. She did have a through and through to her brain so awake may not really mean much.

Of course that doesn't help the others that died, including the 9 year-old girl.

Arizona used to have a good rep. Great weather (a dry heat), friendly people. It seems so scary now.

and left Americans questioning whether divisive politics had pushed the suspect over the edge.

I might be speaking out of turn here,but if that were the case, the perpetrator will no doubt be jailed for a few years and then set free. This is how it would probably end up if that happened in Oz. I would have no qualms about the death penalty in most cases and many would disagree depending on how it impacted on them PERSONALLY. In the case of diminished responsibility, I would like to see jail for life mean just that. In my country's case,I believe that we are far,far too lenient.

As an Arizona native currently residing in Phoenix, I can attest to the fact that there are plenty here who simply cannot believe this shit.

Furthermore, the level-headed semi-intelligent people here are only slightly outnumbered by the "git'r done" crowd, but thats all it takes.  Jan Brewer was re-elected as governor after passing SB1070. So the people have spoken: blatant racism is ok now. And honestly, when I saw that headline this morning, I couldn't remember if Giffords was a Republican or Democrat. That was irrelevant, I was just pissed. The reactionary element in politics here not only embarrasses us (Arizona residents) on the world stage, but it eradicates any hope for progress on issues that require serious compromise.

I dunno where I'm really going with this, I just want everyone to know that I believe there is hope for Arizona. I'd like to believe that todays incident will cause more people to reflect on the amount of good that a little bit of compromise would do for our community. However, I feel that the actual effect will be increased divisiveness. It will get worse before it gets better. Just how I feel. 

Amazing how the violent talk never gets fully addressed by those who benefit from it until something like this happens.  Then they "scapegoat" the trigger man.

Ugh.  As if it wasn't bad enough already.  The nine year-old girl who was killed was born on 9/11

For my company, I need to come up with a weekly e-learning newsletter which usually consists of an article, defining new vocab, something about foreign culture, ect. I've been trying to use relevant articles and was thinking about actually using part of a news story on this seeing as it's such a big story in the US now. The article includes this:

"At a news conference Saturday night, a clearly emotional Dupnik, who has been close to both Giffords and Roll, repeatedly cited what he characterized as the "vitriol" that has infected political discourse. He said that his own state has become "the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

There is reason to believe, he said, that the shooting suspect "may have a mental issue," adding that people like that "are especially susceptible to vitriol.""

"That may be free speech, but it's not without consequences," he said.

I wanted to use talk about the general structure of the US government and the parties in the other sections, but do you guys think it is in bad form to use something so politically charged? Or even to bring up a subject like freedom of speech? Or perhaps it would be better to use portions that better reflect the events instead of reactions? Anyway, I'm interested to hear any opinions you guys might have!

No, that is not bad form. As I have experienced in this term, it is fine and dandy to do something about politics, free speech, human rights and all such things, as long as China is not involved. "may have a mental issue"...aha...yep, that is a clever chappie...the guy shot several people, killed a 9-year-old girl and he may have a mental issue...yepyep, and the KKK may have race issues...telling a 7-foot biker that his hog is girly may be bad for your health...This Dupnik person is really perceptive...But I digress. I can see nothing wrong with using this incident or article in class.

If you feel you must teach this event in class, here's the NYT's Lesson Plan:
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/ways-to-teach-about-the-arizona-shootings/?nl=learning&emc=learninga2

You're not afraid of getting into trouble with the gov't are you?  I think they would love to have this tragedy communicated to as many young Chinese as possible.  Confirms the view of the decadent, violent West.  You may be in for a medal of some sort.

I absolutely detest anyone who uses force and weaponry to 'take out' the opposition in a "free" democracy (yeah I know, maybe there is no ideal and free society). These wankers who assassinate are f*cked up dicks. They rock the very world of democracy and freedom and open speech and electioneering that keeps this world partially sane. Pardon my French.

Hope the lass gets better. The world has lost too many great pioneers to assassins, notably: Gandhi. You might not know but Spencer Perceval was the only British PM to be assassinated inside the Parliament building back in 1812 (by another politician).

When I looked this up on delightful Wikipedia it was funny to see that the USA has it's own Wikipage on assassinated politicians! Why on earth have the American's killed so many high flyers (including our own John Lennon  )?

Not sure if the opposite number, Republican Jesse Kelly, should even be allowed in politics if he was brandishing a gun! In the UK he'd be staight onto the slagheap unelectable (if the use of guns were legal that is)!

Not sure if the opposite number, Republican Jesse Kelly, should even be allowed in politics if he was brandishing a gun! In the UK he'd be staight onto the slagheap unelectable (if the use of guns were legal that is)!

The "brandishing of guns" was everywhere last year.  In TV campaign advertisements, political rallies etc.  There was a call out last summer asking people to "appear" on the lawn of a U.S. Senator with your guns to protest the fact that he dared to vote with the Democrats.  And this was a bona fide conservative Republican.  A popular talk show host discussed on the air how he wanted to kill a liberal documentarian.  None of this make national news or was condemned by conservative politicians.

It reached a pitch and a level of acceptability never seen before in the U.S.  And that is really saying something.  I really think America is at a crossroads and I don't know if the cooler heads will really prevail or not.  Maybe this assassination attempt will be an antidote of some kind.  But it wasn't after President Kennedy was murdered or his brother or MLK and on and on and on.  After all, many congressmen are now proudly reacting by stating that they will carry concealed weapons on their person from now on to protect themselves from similar events.  Does that sound like healing?

I think you make a valid point A-Train.. I am very critical of my country and sometimes I feel it is very difficult to explain things about the government without coating the information in my own bias. Unfortunately, this story does seem to fall in line with the stereotype many Chinese people probably have of the US... Perhaps I question the taste because I don't want people to think this is common. It's a bit of a challenge to explain the political climate without making everyone sound crazy....

Thanks for the link Old34, that's quite useful- I didn't realize there was a section like that in the nytimes!

Thanks for the link Old34, that's quite useful- I didn't realize there was a section like that in the nytimes!

Mei guanxi

This link is to something called Bloomberg News. It has an article on a fascinating result of the Arizona shooting...more people are buying guns...Yep...http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-11/glock-pistol-sales-surge-in-aftermath-of-shooting-of-arizona-s-giffords.html

so one crazy moron with a gun shooting people= a lot of people carrying guns, which are used to shoot things....