Readers: This is an article by Jerry Remmers, our respected Columnist at The Moderate voice who, as you know is fighting a courageous battle for his life at present. He asked that we post this for him. Dr. E/ ed.
Sarah Palin’s Explosively Toxic Verbal Bombs: First “Death Panels,” Then “Reload,” And Now, “Blood Libel”
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Jerry Remmers, Columnist at The Moderate VoiceAs all of you know, I have suspended writing my column for health reasons. Somehow, I cannot let this latest Sarah Palin video gone viral on the Internet Wednesday go without comment.
In the video, Palin said the liberal critics are committing “blood libel” in their criticism of her and other conservative leaders regarding comments about the cause of the shooting spree in Arizona.
The term “blood libel” is the false allegation that Jews kill non-Jews, especially Christian children, to acquire blood for the Passover or other Jewish rituals.
I don’t know what Palin means by her metaphoric reference. “Blood libel” for any thinking person is an explosively toxic verbal bomb that need not be tossed on the ashes of the six dead in Tucson. Of course, as most intellectually deficient minds do, she is simply offering a knee-jerk reflex to perceived insults tossed on her and her political ilk.
I am continually amazed how Palin can demean what she calls the “Lame Street Media” for always getting it wrong yet reaps financial rewards for recycling every comment of hers hidden behind the cloak of her social networks.
I will not say Sarah Palin is a demagogue but I do wonder about the depth of her intellectual capacity beyond simplistic soundbites such as “death panels” and “don’t retreat, reload.” Now it is blood libel.
Some of the psychobabble on the left, especially New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, has gone too far.
And as Bill O’Reilly of Fox News pointed out, progressives using the shooting to slam the right-wing extremists are taking cover behind Pima County sheriff Clarence Dupnik. “I think the tone of rhetoric that’s occurred in this country over the past couple of years affects troubled personalities,” he said.
What we are observing in Arizona happens every time a tragedy occurs — from the JFK and RFK and Martin Luther King and George Wallace and all the other political assassinations or attempts we have witnessed in our lifetimes.
What it takes to trigger a sick mind into killing someone is anyone’s guess. The fact is, no gun law will prevent some disturbed soul from acquiring a gun and ammunition and carrying out his warped mission.
We live in a free society where a mentally deranged person has equal protection. Too often that results in mental health and police agencies failing to share database records when a sicko is identified. Yet most officials are too scared that they will finger a person as mentally unfit with any degree of certainty. Two recent examples come to mind where this turned to tragedy — The Virginia Tech massacre of 33 and the Fort Hood killer of 13. Plenty of people recognized the possibilities. None did anything to prevent it.
In the case of Jared Loughner, we will have to wait and find out.
I am of the school that believes these senseless shootings are unavoidable and the toxic rhetoric in the environment has little to do with it.
We could live in a world of nursery rhymes, Walt Disney movies and Bible verses, and some sick jerk will misconstrue what he reads into a cause for killing his fellow man.
jer
Jerry Remmers worked 26 years in the newspaper business. His last 23 years was with the Evening Tribune in San Diego where assignments included reporter, assistant city editor, county and politics editor.