Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Credit Where Due

We do try to be fair here. I did not see President Obama's speech, but I did read the text. This passage is spot on:

But what we can’t do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another. As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together…

The reason many on the Right have been so angry in recent days is that there have been those who have spent the last four days attempting to assign blame, where no blame exists. Our friend Amanda has said in a different context -- it's not about you. Right. And that's the point. The actions of Jared Loughner are his own. The president said that as well tonight. And it was good of him to say it.

Civility comes from mutual agreement. It cannot be imposed by one side on the other. And it certainly can't come until those who were party to the baseless calumnies heaped in recent days step forward and accept their responsibility for it. We can have an honest debate if we have honest debaters.

President Obama gave his allies on the Left a chance to climb down from the untenable place they have chosen to occupy. It is my hope that those allies will see fit to use the opportunity he has provided. If they do, the debate that so many people claim to desire will happen. If not -- game on.

4 comments:

Gino said...

personally, i think too much national hay is being made of what is a local crime/tragedy perpetraded upon somebody who nobody outside of her neighborhood knew about, let alone cared about.

if my neighbor went off and blew away six people outside the local target, i doubt there would be the president leading a sob fest.

Chuckwagon Boy said...

So would you say this writer, a conservative Republican writing in a conservative publication agreeing with Paul Wellstone, is somebody you would agree with? http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/256907/what-we-can-learn-paul-wellstone-really-michael-tanner?page=1

Brad Carlson said...

Gino, I think it's a salient issue due to the fact it was a Federal legislator who was shot while attempting to interact with constituents. Too many members of Congress already look down on their constituents as mere peasants and thus decline to meet with them.

My concern is that the shooting of Rep. Giffords will be used as a cudgel for our representatives to decline townhall meetings, etc.

Gino said...

you mean a politician? a member of the whoring class?

sorry, she might be nice to kittens and all that in her personal life, but she's willfully in a profession not known for its honor, where the lighter things float to the top like turds in the cess pool.