MSNBC's Alex Wagner takes a look at what the shooting in Wisconsin actually says about America and what we should be hearing from our leaders on the campaign trail.
Lessons to learn from Sikh temple shooting
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Tue Aug 7, 2012 3:49 PM EDT
— Filed under: gun-violence
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Dear Alex, For this summary of who we are, what we need to address our present illness, and what defines us as Americans, THANK YOU !
We need to hold hate mongerers responsible for their incitement, i.e. Islamaphobes like Michelle Bachmann, Frank Gaffney, Robert Spencer, and Pam Geller to name a few.
one huge lesson--stop giving the hate mongers who did the crime all the press coverage. focus on the victims!!! hate mongers need to held accountable--persons like bachman, limbaugh only incite these nuts and create copy-cats. all the press given the perpetrator of this and other horrible crimes also only encourages copy cats! why do we need to hear about the perpetrator's not the victims' life history/family life/friends/activities/his home/etc and why does his not the victims' face get plastered over the TV and newspapers??? why does ANY private citizen need assault weapons, magazines with dozens of rounds, body armor? the NRA has a lot of blood on its hands all in the name of $$$$$
Earlier today on Hardball, Chris Matthews featured a young man who had been a skin-head, and who has since reformed. For the same reasons he stated for joining that group, is pretty much the opinion of a lot of citizens who not only dislike president Obama, he is hated by white supremesists. This feeling of being superior to other races is nonsense, and you can thank southern dixie-crats for this mindset flourishing in our country. Needless to say, some of those same men have children by black women. People don't realize what the hell they're saying out of their mouths...and just because freedom of speech is afforded us, doesn't mean that you say every crazy damn thing that pops into your head! You can thank Sara Palin, Michelle Bachman, Donald Trump, Mitt Romney and others for the massecre of innocent people in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. They encourage rhetoric and ramp up hatred for everyone who is not a white conservative in this country. Familiar with "let's take our country back!?
Your so full of @!$%# Carolyn. You can't hang the tragedy at Oak Creek on any of those people. This clown who committed this crime was way in deep long before he even knew who Bachman, Trump, Romney, etc were. If he knew of them at all? Your feeble attempt to blame the Conservative base is pathetic. You're obviolusly a true racist by your supposide description of the "rhetoric" as you coin it by the Conservative base. I am a true Conservative, and by the way White. I no more hate people who are not White than those that are. The only thing I do hate about people of color is when they speak like a first class @!$%#, and play the race card when there is no issue. As far as the quote,"let's take our country back" , it had nothing to do with White people wanting to take back America, as you so lavishly spin it. It was actually termed to represent the need for Americans(all Americans) to take back the power that is rightfully theirs. As the quote goes, " A government by the people, for the people." Some in the US government feel that they don't have to answer to the people who put them there. Hence the "let's take our country back" quote.
ALEX WAGNER I LOVE YOU!!! Thank you for highlighting the lying Romney campaign and the 'outraged' MEDIA that follow along like 'bots!!!
At it's founding our country was and indeed still is a unique experiment. Our beginnings as a county is rooted in diversity and allowing ourselves the freedom to be who we are while uniting under one simply truth: That in spite of our various ethnic and religious diversities we all are AMERICANS. No other country upon the earth has this truth woven within its very foundations and this alone is what makes us the envy of the whole world.
It took nearly 200 years since the stirring words of our founders Declaration of Independence ("All Men Are Created Equal, Endowed By Their Creator With The Individual Rights Of Liberty, Justice, And The Pursuit Of Happiness") to end slavery in our nation. And it took another 100 years and more to end the Jim Crown subjegations of African Americans and begin their long stuggle for civil, voters, and economic rights, the latter still under siege, both from within and outside their communities.
The shooting sprees of the last two months have been sensatiional, but mostly because they are so far outside the norm of our everyday lives. Oh yes, we have our share of mentally ill people in our midst, and we have more than enough ner- do-wells in society , including in minority communities that mostly prey upon each other in their criminal activities. Therein lies the real problem here...identifying and controlling the madmen and the criminals before they can inflict on our by far mostly law abiding and very civil society (with exception for the media and the media hounders, however).
Who said the union was perfect particularly with the likes of folks who deeply fear the inevitability of change and anyone different then themselves. The good thing is as the world changes it seems to drive fear and hate mongers to further extremes which sets the majority of "reasonable and sane" Americans against such insanity. Our perfection comes from the vision of unity that our "nation of immigrants"calls us to strive towards.