THIS IS NOT A GAME! WHAT YOU SAY AND DO MEANS SOMETHING

Today, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, and 17 others, were shot, including a 9 year old child who was killed, when a gunman opened fire outside a supermarket in Tucson, where Ms. Giffords was meeting with constituents for a “Congress on Your Corner” event.

“I saw the congresswoman talking to two people, and then this man suddenly came up and shot her in the head and then shot other people,” said Dr. Steven Rayle, a witness.

During the fall campaign, Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, posted a map on her Facebook page depicting spots where Democrats were running for re-election; those Democrats were targeted with crosshairs like those seen through the scope of a gun. Supporters were told "it's time to reload". Ms. Giffords was among those on Ms. Palin’s map. At the time, Democrats and people with a conscience who warned that such actions would invite violence were dismissed as hand wringers.

What a surprise, the level of rhetoric and the fomenting of anger for cynical political purposes from the right and the far right through right wing media in the form of Beck & Rush & Hannity and well the list goes on, actually has consequences. What people do and say actually means something. People, often the most unstable among us, are actually listening and being influenced.

Those people who would seek to garner power by manipulating the public through the fomentation of anger and violence are irresponsible and have no place in the leadership of our nation or in our society. Rather, all decent people should come out and say that this is wrong and it is something they will never support.

While I am sure Beck, Rush, Sarah Palin & Co. will come out with statements repudiating the violence, it is beyond dispute that their ongoing rhetoric set the stage for this kind of violence against those elected officials who do not believe in their brand of America. It is as unamerican as they are.

All decent people should come out and say so!