What you can say and what you should

I want to start this off by sending my deepest condolences to the victims and their families in the recent Arizona shooting. This is a horrific event that never should have happened and there is nothing that we can do to bring these people back. What we need to do now is learn from it so that we can hope to prevent it from happening in the future.

There's a lot of talk about what role political pundits have played in the tragedy and this is something that I want to address. Long have I believed that the rhetoric that has been toss around is dangerously inflammatory. In an effort to highlight the second amendment right to bear arms, and the constitution as a whole, many conservative and tea party voices have taken to a more militant tone in the last two years. (Here's a good link that breaks it all down chronologically.) The most well known of which being Sarah Palin's quote, "Don't retreat, reload," and she even went as far as to target specific members of congress and mark their districts with cross hairs. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' district was one of those in the sights. 

I'm not trying to say that Palin or anyone else is directly responsible for the events that occurred, however I think it's narrow minded to think the gunman wasn't influenced by these words. Here in America we have the right to say whatever we want however that doesn't mean that we should. For instance I could go downtown Seattle and start screaming the most offensive racial slurs out there, but does that mean that I should? No! Or maybe I should just hang out around hospitals taunting people because their loved ones are sick? No! And the same goes for suggesting that people arm themselves with weapons instead of ballots. 

As Uncle Ben said, "With great power comes great responsibility". If we are to preserve our freedom of speech we need to start thinking about the ramifications of our statements. Don't go around calling for people to take up arms against congressmen and women you're opposed to and then get surprised when someone actually does it. Instead think about what you're saying before you start screaming it on cable news networks from coast to coast. 

Buddha said, "Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world." Unfortunately the reverse is true and when our words are full of hatred and malice we change our world too. It's up to us which world we live in. Lets keep what we say true and kind.