TRAGEDY IN TUCSON: CONGRESSWOMAN GIFFORDS RESPONDING THIS MORNING, JUDGE ROLL, STAFFER DEAD

I hope that everyone who reads this shares my prayers for the victims, families and friends of this fiendish act. Giffords, a passionate advocate for her point of view, is hanging on with high risks of brain swelling and other factors. But it appears that the bullet and skull fragments that pierced all the way through her head, did not cross the line between both hemispheres of the brain, nor did it hit the geometric center of the brain. The doctors say this bodes well for a potential recovery. She is responding but essentially comatose. Federal Judge Roll is among the dead.

Congratulations are due to the University Medical Center in Tucson which has a five star trauma unit. 38 minutes from injury to operating room is unheard of. I’ve had occasion to meet some of their doctors and staff and was impressed by the incredible skill and speed with which they worked. Lives were saved, but six people, including a nine year old child are dead, from a hail of well aimed gunfire from a 23 year old disaffected, confused young man.

THE BLAME GAME

Contrary to many pundits I do not single out any one person or group for having provoked this attack, nor is it the fault of the NRA, gun enthusiasts, conservatives, the Tea Party, liberals or anyone other than the shooter and a possible accomplice. Nobody ordered an assassination here. The shooter doesn’t fit any profile of a trained, programmed assassin.

But the ugly context of political discourse, the ethics of commerce,  the corruption of government, and the confusion of fact-deprived people taking positions and voting on people and policies they do not understand DO stand in the background context of this shooting. And we risk more of these events until we follow the advice of the PIMA County Sheriff who urged us all to do some soul searching.

THE RISK WE TAKE

In any society there are going to be a lot of people who are on or already over the edge between reality and delusion. Of those, at least some would tend toward violence if given the chance or excuse. Despite my ardent opposition to the rhetoric and PR of Banks, Business and “conservatives” on many issues, if we allow ourselves to blame them for this and potentially other tragedies we are opposing the 1st Amendment right of free speech, the essence of which is to protect the speaker of words that you hate to hear.

It is the condition of our country and our place in the world which leads to intense rhetoric and actions, some of which are going to be irrational and tragic. And some tragedies are going to happen in the best of times because in a country of over 300 million people, it is a statistical impossibility to avoid such events.

It is not the rhetoric that causes chaos and danger, it is the acts of people, society, business and government that causes conditions to deteriorate such that too many people are losing confidence in their own society, giving them the feeling that they are strictly on their own. Closing schools, fire houses, police stations, hospitals, and other social services undermines our confidence in society and increases the likelihood of someone concluding that theirs is no definable society anymore, there is no law, they are just on their own.

The worse we make it for the average Joe or Josephine, the more likely that they will snap or respond to what they perceive as an attack from their own society. Most people stocking up on guns and ammunition are doing so out of fear that our society will descend in lawless chaos and a desire to protect themselves and their loved ones from harm. Yet some of the people who are on the edge of self-control are riding this tide of fear and self-protection and excited by the prospect of holding a gun in their hand. It creates an illusion of control which is something we all crave.

Take away their homes, their jobs, their prospects and their hopes and dreams for their children is a sure fire way of getting people to react with intensity — particularly when they see small pockets of society doing better and better as the rest of society gets worse.

REDUCING THE RISKS

We can reduce but not eliminate the risks of this tragedy if those of us who are rationale and just normally neurotic use the skills and resources we have and act, as a society, with certain goals upon which we can all agree.

1. We all want to be safe. Our loved ones, property and lives should be free from interference by anyone, any business or any government. As it turns out this is in the US Constitution. So we don’t have to write anything, we just have to read it. And it is a surprising short read.
2. We all want our privacy to be respected. A society that gives up its liberties in the cause of security ends up with neither. I can’t remember who said that but it is true. Who do YOU want deciding whether any person, business, or government can look into your life on a fishing expedition? Nobody wants that. As it turns out, that is already in the US Constitution too. The Constitution, the ultimate law of the land, is a short document, even with the amendments.
3. We all want our society to be orderly and safe from those who on a higher scale of power are no better than the Tucson gunman. We have that power through voting, as we are the ultimate boss, but we have used that power poorly because we delegated the task of fact-gathering to the press which has been acquired by large corporate interests who control the message. We have sacrificed freedom of the press and access to information in the name of laissez-faire economics. So deprived of the facts we need to decide how we think and what we want to happen, and subjected to bullies whose ascent to power is merely the manipulation of the information sources, our voting and opinions have been sloppy and chaotic, which is exactly how we got to this point in our society.
4. There are far better ways to identify those who are prone or even intending to commit acts of violence or other acts designed to undermine our society. Our current methods are primitive at best, and actually merely an expression of controlling the facts and narrative to scare us into accepting the loss of the liberties that we fought for and won, in the American revolution.
   
5. If we look around the world, we find that there are several countries whose security system at the airports and borders work far better than ours without the expenditure of billions of dollars on technology (bullies in business controlling our governmental decisions) and without being nearly as invasive (breaching our privacy) as the current methods at the airport, in our workplace and in our home.
6. Given the right information and the imperative of making rational decisions based upon the good of society rather than some parts who will profit, we would all choose the systems and plans that have been proven to work.

Those bullets in Tucson can never be taken back. But we can all be taken aback by the ferocity of the act. Let’s take the Sheriff’s suggestion and do some introspection and let’s start moving in ways that makes sense out of our society so that we can have a certain amount of confidence that we know what happens next.

Neil F Garfield 1/8/2011

Posted in Corruption |