Subscribe to GOPHER UPDATES
 
Subscribe to DEAL OF THE DAY
 


------------------------------------------------------------
To ensure that you continue to receive Anything Goes e-mails,
please add jamie@gophercentral.com to your e-mail address book.
------------------------------------------------------------

Take a minute for this. It will warm your heart!
Watch the Video that's an Internet Sensation - You'll THANK ME
http://pd.gophercentral.com/u/1077/c/186/a/25

January 10, 2011

Greetings...

Hopefully, I'm well enough to be here on a more regular basis. I'm feeling
much better after sleeping through most of last week. I think I know how
Rip Van Winkle must have felt when he woke up!

Thank you for all the get-well wishes!

I wish I had a "pleasant" topic to talk about my first day back, but
I'm actually writing this on Saturday after having the news on all day
covering a horrible tragedy in Tucson, Arizona. Tucson is the second
largest city in Arizona and home to the University of Arizona where one
of our boys graduated and one currently goes...

By now, you probably have heard about the mass shootings outside a grocery
store during Representative Gabrielle Giffords "welcome meet and greet"
day for constituents...

A gunman, 22 year-old Jared Loughner, approached, and started shooting
at point blank range, shooting Giffords in the head and wounding 20 people,
six of which have died, including a nine-year-old girl. The gunman was
finally subdued by a crowd who charged at him and knocked him to the ground...

Giffords, a Democrat, was recently re-elected after a very close race. Her
office was vandalized when she voted with President Obama on health
care and was one of Sarah Palins's "target" on her list to be removed at
election time...

In an interview with MSNBC in March, Giffords said, regarding the target list...

"For example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the thing is,
that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight
over our district. When people do that, they have to realize that there
are consequences to that action."

The gunman had a few YouTube videos complaining abut the literacy rate as
well as inventing a new U.S. currency. He posted a "Goodbye friends" and
"Please don't be mad at me" message on his MySpace page hours before he
went on his rampage. So far, there is no correlation between this nut
and affiliation to either political party...

A few things crossed my mind as this story started to unfold. When the
shooting first occured and the information started coming out, I wondered
why the nationality and religious background of this terrorist wasn't
being reported. If the gunman had been Middle Eastern, or Hispanic, Black,
or anything other than "homegrown white", that information would have
preceded every other piece of information regarding the terrorist and YES,
this is a terrorist!!! Religious or political ideology creates terrorists...

The second thing that crossed my mind as I was listening to the reports was
that although I don't think anyone can blame Sarah Palin for this tragedy,
interesting to note that as Giffords elderly father, who is in a wheelchair
was being wheeled in to the hopsital to be near his daughter as she underwent
surgery was asked, "Does your daughter have any enemies"? His response?

Yes, the whole Tea Party...

I personally don't think anyone in their right mind could condone this
violent act, but there are "nuts" all over the place that hang onto
every word some people say and add their own twisted version in their head
which can lead to violence...

Our political arena has been plagued with an ugliness I haven't seen in
years between Democrats and Republicans and rather than blamne either
party, I will go ahead and blame them both for spewing the constant
negative rhetoric and venom that has fueled this last Congressional
race as well as the Presidential race which elected Barack Obama as our
president...

Instead of pretending they are here for the "People", I think they should
do something good for the "People" and do one thing...

Shut their mouths...

While people are running around worrying about airport security, someone
better start taking a closer look at a much bigger threat...

The homegrown one that doesn't have dark skin, wear a scarf on their head,
a "funny" name, or speak with an accent...

Yep, I'm baaaaaaaaack...