Freedom of speech gives us the freedom to state our opinions however right or left of center, however inflammatory and however extreme it may be. But with this freedom comes responsibility. With this freedom comes the responsibility of being correct and not just spouting off for the sake of hearing our own voices. With this freedom comes the responsibility of knowing on whose ears our words may fall and what effect they may have.
In light of yesterday’s shooting of the congresswoman and others in Arizona comes the fact that the shooter may actually be a mentally or emotionally unstable individual who is anti-immigration, anti-government and anti-Zionist. All of which is certainly within his right to be regardless of whether or not the majority agree, but it seems that these fires were fueled by certain websites. Again it is well within their right to publish on their website their views but where does the responsibility lie to realize that there are people out there that may read these words as a call to action rather than a healthy debate.
I am in no way singling out this particular website. Because this is also common practice with mainstream newspapers, networks and even politicians themselves. To what length do we need to go for ratings? How extreme must we be just to be heard? Whether you are berating Sarah Palin or Pres. Obama are the only boundaries we know when we have driven some poor soul to an action that we all will regret.
History is littered with the names of those who took action and took lives driven to an extreme by rhetoric. Mark David Chapman, John Wilkes Booth, Sirhan Sirhan, James Earl Ray and on and on. We can weave all the conspiracy theories we want but anyone must admit that at least a few of these were unstable individuals driven to action based on rhetoric. With whom lies the responsibility to correct this situation?
That responsibility lies with those of us stable enough to listen and still know right from wrong. Most of us can follow stories of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, develop an opinion to hate him, but never actually attempt to kill him. But there are those who will read a negative article about Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ views on immigration and actually be driven to action. But it is those of us who know right from wrong but crave this extreme rhetoric and in fact spread it ourselves through facebook and blogs such as this one that have created this environment where CNN, FOX, our elected representatives and others go out of their way to give us what we want. Do you think this is what the founding fathers had in mind when they drafted the Constitution? And by the way New York Congressman Gerald Nadler it is a sacred document. One which you were elected to uphold so I would choose my words a little more carefully.
Every time we watch a network news show because they are extreme we feed into this behavior. Every time we visit an inflammatory website we feed into this behavior. Yesterdays; senseless killing of a federal Judge who was in the wrong place at the wrong time or an innocent 9 year old girl who was eager to learn how government works is on our hands, it’s on our hands because we have driven society to this extreme. Extreme sports, extreme fighting and now we crave extreme news. We as a society are like a ravenous animal whose thirst can only be satisfied when we have been driven to the precipice.
Is yesterdays event any different than a Palestinian bomber in Israel, an Al-Queda militant bombing a market in the Middle East? I was raised to believe this country was better than that. I saw my father cry on 9/11 because he and his brothers fought in wars to prevent something like that. I can’t help but wonder what he would have said yesterday if he were alive.
Yesterday was a national disgrace and we as a nation must prevent it in the future.
