Tag Archives: Tucson killings

Latest Case for Moderation

BY GARY JOHNSON

rerprinted from Loose Change, Twin Cities Business

What a shame that it takes the attempted assassination of a public servant and the murder of six people, including a federal judge and a lovely little girl aspiring to be a politician, to divert our attentions from the polarizing political climate we’ve created.

My Facebook page receives three or four hundred posts a day, and over the past year it has been populated mostly by political grinding of one sort or another. Because my Facebook friends lean mostly to the left, you can well imagine what the general rant du jours are. The “righties,” however, are no less virulent—and often move the dial well past reason. Both sides—and isn’t that really the problem: “sides”?—are terribly polarized, a condition brought on by the flashpoint issues of the past few elections.
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Turning Tragedy to Mischief

 

 

BY JOHN FEEHERY

 Reprinted from the feeherytheory.com

On July 24, 1998, just as the House of Representatives concluded debate on contentious healthcare legislation, Russell Weston stepped into the Capitol building and fired a gun, killing officer Jacob Chestnut. He then proceeded into the office of then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), where he encountered Detective John Gibson. Gibson was able to stop Weston from killing others in the whip’s office (including me), but not without sacrificing his own life in the process.

Weston was a deranged psychotic who held strong anti-government views. Perhaps because his target was a strong conservative leader, there was no deep concern at the time about the political rhetoric of the day. There was only concern about the alarming lack of security that surrounded the Capitol grounds, and about the fact that two brave men had given their lives in defense of their country. 

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