Crazy, but that's how it goes; Millions of people living as foes

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I'm struggling to wrap my head around the tragic shooting in Arizona. I cannot fathom the pain of the families who lost loved ones, or the horror and fear of those who were there.

Because my brain goes a million miles an hour, and bounces back and forth, there are several threads in my processing.

On one hand, crazy people happen. I'd argue that anyone who can actually kill another human being is crazy, unless it's self defense. So while the shooting seems to be politically motivated, I can't just black-and-white this and say "vitriolic political speech caused this", because in my heart I believe that this kind of crazy would be expressed, somehow, regardless. A person capable of this kind of hate and violence will find release somewhere, somehow. "Vitriolic speech" didn't *cause* that level of crazy.

But on the other hand ...

I don't understand where and when this country fell off the track. Was it just the election of a black guy that inflamed so many people? Was it here all along?

For whatever reason, Obama's election seems to be the inflection point for our country. When we went from being red and blue and that being okay, to being Red and Blue and it being divisive. When did political views and opinions become so weighty?

Why is it now okay to use crosshairs and words like "target" in political ads? When did that start?

Is this really where we are going as a people?

Are people really unhappy enough with politics - politics - to kill over it?

I guess in a world that seems to be spinning faster and faster to some sort of craziness event horizon, a single crazy event shouldn't stand out. People have been killing each other over religious ideology forever, and prisoners fill our jails for crimes I'd say are 9 times out of 10 some kind of crazy. Or at least stupid and selfish; but I'd argue that the level of self-involvement that crimes against another person require is in itself a form of crazy.

But as a people, why do we not rise against the ... well meanness just sounds too benign, and evil seems a bit much ... maybe it's the crazy we need to rise against. Maybe it's selfishness and this seemingly pervasive belief that having an opinion means you have the right to force it on others and belittle/vilify them for not agreeing.

Words alone can't *make* someone kill a person. There has to be something in there that's willing to kill in the first place. But words can take a harmless campfire and turn it into an inferno. Words accelerate the burn, and can turn a small crazy into a big crazy.

We respond to words, to ideas. That's what got Obama elected in the first place: well-chosen words. There's no denying that words have power - and the people who turn to incendiary verbiage know this. And they count on it. They use words very carefully to stoke the flames of outrage, of discontent. Sarah Palin knew damn well that there were no death panels in the health care bill. But that concept - the government deciding whether you could live or die - was such a flash point that she used it to her advantage.

"Don't retreat . . . reload!" Palin's famous defense of Laura Schlessinger (another paragon of light ion our national discourse); her Facebook note and crosshairs map that targeted 20 democrats that her PAC wanted to boot with words like "fire", "aim" and "first salvo". These are word choices that are made with one goal: to inflame.

A nine year old girl is dead. Christina Green will never realize her potential because some whack job decided that holding a different ideology was reason enough to kill.

Our beliefs and ideas define who we are; I'd never argue that we shouldn't hold different ideologies. I know mine will never line up with yours, and I want that. It's our differences that make us great, that push us forward, that keep us dreaming and wanting more. It's time we get back to respecting and appreciating our differences; embracing the individuality that the country was founded on. No more divisive rhetoric, no more vitriol and hate.

Please?
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(Post title from Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train)