On the recordJanuary 20, 2011
In the wake of the tragedy in Tucson 10 days ago, there has been a lot of soul searching, a lot of introspection, and a lot of commentary about what was behind the tragedy there and what motivated Jared Loughner to take the action he did. It's become the judicious and kind of the politically correct thing to say, Oh, it was just one madman doing something. We can't ascribe responsibility to anything else. I think that's too easy. I think that's a cop-out. The fact is that Jared Loughner did not try to attack the community college that threw him out, any of the employers who had fired him, or anybody in his family. He singled out Gabrielle Giffords, an elected official of the United States Government. And one has to wonder whether all of the talk in recent years about tyrannical governments and the demonization of politicians did not in some way guide that madman to her instead of another target. I think we need to not just write this off as a senseless tragedy and an inexplicable one. We need to delve into it more deeply and decide whether the rhetoric that's out there in the media environment had something to do with this tragic event.
