A modest proposal: A Conspiracy of Silence

When I first heard about the latest violent outrage, the at-this-writing attempted assassination of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, that took the lives of six innocent Americans, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl (according to reports, born on 9/11), I’m ashamed to admit my first thought was, “I’ll bet the Congressperson was a Democrat.” Sure enough.

Just as predictably, the red vs blue finger-pointing and speculation began immediately in the mediasphere. My friend The Last Boy Scout weighed in with his disappointment that it looked like the pundits and PACs were already trying to make political hay out of this tragedy.

I told him that assuming the shooter was a right-winger was a natural conclusion given that the intended victim was a Democrat—usually your own people don’t try to gun you down—and her office had already been repeatedly vandalized since “ObamaCare” passed, reportedly by miscreants claiming Tea Party affiliation.



If the victim had been a Republican politician in an exceptionally politically volatile Democratic state, my first thought would have been, “Shit, the shooter was probably a nutjob Democrat!”

The same way when a person is killed, the cops always take a good, hard look first at their significant other; some leapt-to conclusions, like some stereotypes, have a basis in precedent.



That having been said, I agree with my friend in principle. This was more about crazy than politics. With that much collateral damage, it had to have been. The killer might as well have been an al-Quaeda terrorist.

But still, in the face of this kind of tragedy, it is human nature to want to assess responsibility, if only to try to prevent something similar from happening again.

Besides the shooter, I blame the increasingly giddy, irresponsible mainstream media for deliberately fostering an “Anything Goes” ethos among its fan-base. Because they’ve been so successful at it, everybody’s trying to outFox Fox News these days, and this is the result: High-profile hatemongers of every prejudice and agenda with bully pulpits and dedicated, unthinking throngs who hang on their every utterance. Bad decision-making is bound to proceed.

Plus, and more to the point, we may not have more homicidal nutjobs now than we ever did, but TV and the internet are making overnight stars of them and don’t think the next nutjob isn’t noticing.

This is the part I’ve said before:



I think all responsible broadcasters should get together—of their own accord—and conspire to never to let the name, or any personal information, of assassins or attempted assassins pass their lips or appear in their publications ever again. Take away the spotlight and you take away a lot of the motivation. Most of these idiots leave notes behind, elucidating how much they’re looking forward to their names becoming household words after their atrocities.



Really. We can’t disarm America, nor can we fix crazy, but we can make the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow a little less enticing for the next homicidal loser with a grudge and wet dreams of fame and glory. Put them down on the scene if they don’t have the courtesy to do it themselves, then bury them without ceremony in a potter’s grave.

And name some buildings and streets after the victims, because they are the ones whose lives are worth celebrating and names are worth remembering.


Addendum:

My friend dropped me a line privately, pointing out that in the communications paradigm of the 21st-century, it wouldn’t mean a damn thing if the MSM did get together and decide to comport themselves with dignity and decency, some Wikileaks bastard would put it out there and 10 million bloggers—except me—and tweeters would make sure the next killer got his 15 minutes of infamy anyhow.



Fuck a duck, man. I don’t have an answer other than I don’t think we’re gonna make it as a species. We were a fine idea on paper, but something somewhere in the execution got fucked up and we discovered that being awful to each other was a lot more exciting—it certainly makes better headlines!—than being humane. There’s a reason the most sought-after girls are always drawn to the Bad Boys—it’s human nature in a nutshell.

Cue orchestra, drop the curtain...