The victim:

Wednesday – January 12, 2011

The victim:

This week has been occupied by the shooting in Arizona. I do not take particular exception or take particular glee in writing about this tragedy. However, the tragedy in Arizona is a symptom of what might be wrong in America.

We are not talking about the victim’s we are talking about the politics. We are not talking about the cure, we are talking about blaming. I took the opportunity to write about my thoughts and what I perceived to be what was happening in the story and the dialog. Much of what I have said is true. Much of what I have said is now echoed by many Americans. In a poll taken by CBS, this question was asked: did harsh political tone have anything to do with the Arizona shootings? The respondents said this: 57% said no while 32% said yes. 19% of Republicans said yes while 69% of Republicans said no. The Democrats scored with 42% saying yes and the 49% saying no. Independents scored with 33% saying yes while 56% saying no.

Many of the most ardent liberal’s were making up the news and not talking about the facts.

I felt compelled to bring some light into this very dark side of America. When America turns dark with hatred we all become victims. We hear the hate speech of political vitriol and we become victims of false assumptions. We hear one side of the spectrum making up the fabrication of a story line that would do them well politically down the road. Consequently, the other side was forced to defend the truth and bring out the false hoods of the fabrication and the indictment of being guilty of conservatism.

There was not one conservative hurling the accusation of what might be the cause. There was not one conservative that as we have now found out was the cause. This was yet another story of divisive politicking by a divisive group of politicians who have lost their way. We are now the victims!

The American conscience was yet again being called on to sort out truth from fiction. Many now on the left are backing away from the outlandish claims that have been made this week. That is a start to healing some of the vitriol that has been on display.

Yesterday, I asked a question, I believe I was one of the first:
“While the left is making it seem like conservatives are at fault, our media should be asking and investigating what his family life was like and where the safety net failed that moved him to shoot. I can assure you that it is not conservative vitriol.”

Yesterday, we found out there were no security details on site. The Sheriff of Pima County, who started the vitriol by blaming conservatives for the shooting, was absent from the site. Yesterday, we found out that the Sheriff of Pima County was an active campaigner against the Arizona Immigration law. Yesterday, we found out that the shooter answered no to taking drugs on his federal permit to buy the gun. We now know he was a drug user. This is like asking a terrorist if he has a box cutter or explosives on his person before he boards a plane. Yesterday, we found out that there are over 10,000 people who suffer from mental illness that have guns in the state of Arizona, the shooter was one of them. Yesterday, we found out that the Sheriff knew of the shooters mental illness and the threats that he posed to that community. We are still finding out what fears the people of that community had of the shooter. Yesterday, the family of the shooter said they had no idea of the extent of the shooters illness. A family should be responsible for getting the help needed when the shooter was kicked out of school and told he could not come back until he had a psychiatric exam. The family could not have been unaware of the shrine to the occult and the skull that was on display in the back yard of the shooters house.

Most of what I have listed here is what apparently has slipped through the cracks of the system. It is the fault of humans not enforcing and being aware of the numerous signs that detailed the deep and disturbed psychosis of the shooter. The shooter should not become the victim in all of this. The shooter is innocent until proven guilty. The shooter will have an insanity defense and that in itself is insane.

In all of the vitriol we have forgotten about the 6 who were killed and the 14 innocent people who were injured. The tragedy in all of this is that the people who were killed could have gone on to be constructive members of their society no matter what their political beliefs were. The injured now will carry the scare of that fateful day when they escaped death at the hands of the shooter.

We must resist the temptation to make the shooter the victim because society failed him. The system is what failed and those who have cause the vitriol are also the ones who caused the system to fail. The victims who unfortunately have left this existence will not be able to tell their story. Their memory is what needs to be enshrined and not the display that was in the backyard of the shooter. The victims here are what matters. The ultimate fate of the shooter will be in the hands of the system. Let’s hope that the system doesn’t fail again for the sake of the victim’s.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: If our public servants would only do their job there wouldn’t be victims in our society! Maybe the President will touch on this today in the speech that could redefine his presidency out of this tragedy.