The Politicization of Tragedy

As you have probably heard by now, a gunman went on a shooting rampage at a movie theater in Aurora, CO early this morning.  It happened shortly after the midnight showing of the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises" started.  There are 12 dead, and at least 50 more injured.  This is a tragedy beyond comprehension.  What would drive someone to do such a dastardly thing?

We mourn for the families affected by this tragedy.  The only thing that these people were guilty of was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  They were simply gathered in a movie theater, waiting to watch the movie that they had eagerly anticipated.  And out of nowhere, someone comes into the theater, protected by body armor, and starts shooting, without any regard for human life.  It is a tragedy, but that word does not seem adequate to describe the totality of the events that happened in that theater.

But not everyone sees this event as a tragedy.  Some see it as a chance to try to gain some sort of political advantage, or to affix blame on a group of people that they do not like.  George Stephanolpoulus interviewed James Ross on ABC this morning, and Ross floated the theory out there that this might have been someone within the Tea Party (the same tactic they tried after Rep. Gabriel Giffords was shot).

His "extensive" research was finding a person on a Tea Party website that had the same name as the gunman, and saying that this Tea Party guy was the shooter.  Really??  This is the best that this "investigative" reporter could do?  Let's ruin someone's life by affixing the blame on them when they had nothing to do with it.  I can see a lawsuit coming on this one.

I have seen several message boards and Twitter feeds where people are blaming this on the Tea Party, or Rush Limbaugh, or conservatives in general.  Yeah, let's just blame people we do not agree with, because that will make us feel better about ourselves.  How can people be consumed with such hatred that they would think this way?

As I write this, the police are at the gunman's house trying to find clues as to why the gunman did what he did.  He has booby-trapped his house.  This gunman obviously had issues.  But we do not know what was going on in his head.  We do not know why he did what he did.  Why do people fell the need to point fingers at others when tragedies happen?  The only person to blame is the person that committed the crime.

The dust has not even settled at this point, and there are already people out there trying to make political points out of this.  The illustrious mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, want more gun control laws.  He has already demanded of President Obama and Mitt Romney their plans for tighter gun control measures if elected to office.  Piers Morgan has come out in favor of tighter gun control laws.  So has D.L. Hughley. And we all know that the U.N. wants global gun control laws, and they will use this incident as an example and a rallying point for why that should happen.

We can argue the merits (actually de-merits) of tighter gun control measures, but now is not the time to do that.  We need to let the families mourn.  We need to let people heal, both physically and mentally.

Many years ago, the current mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, said that you should never let a tragedy go to waste.  In other words, use tragedies to your political advantage.  This is the unfortunate mindset of a lot of politicians today.  Do what you can to retain your office, even if it means taking advantage of other people's misfortunes.

But we do not need to make this a political battle.  The gunman did not care if the people that he shot were Republican or Democrat or Independent or Libertarian or Green Party.  He randomly shot people, not caring about political affiliations, or race, or gender, or anything else.  He had a complete and utter disdain for his fellowman.

The media today tries to link all news to politics - how will this help/hurt President Obama or Mitt Romney?  Well, many of the events that happen on a daily basis are outside the world of politics.  They have nothing to with politics, but we live in an age where the media attempt to link tragedies such as this to politics.  We need to understand that events like this happen, not because of politics, but because of the sin that we all have within us.

There will be a time in the future where we finally know what happened and why this man decided to shoot people at that movie theater.  And we will be able to hopefully have a rational discussion about how to keep this from happening again.

But will it require more legislation?  I doubt it.  It will only require us to be more vigilant in enforcing the current gun legislation that is already in place.

But this unfortunate tragedy happened in an election year and politicians are going to try to use this to their political advantage.  And that is unfortunate.  And sad.  And it only compounds the tragedy that happened early this morning.

Calvin Coolidge and the Declaration of Independence

As I am sitting at my desk at work, eating lunch, I came across an article on the internet (specifically on Breitbart.com) about a speech that President Calvin Coolidge gave regarding the United States and the Declaration of Independence.  I have never come across this speech before, but that is understandable, considering President Coolidge is not one of our better-known Presidents.

Anyway, in this speech, President Coolidge talks about the Declaration as not only a founding document, but also as a spiritual document.  Could you imagine if any politician would give this speech today, much less the President of the United States?  (Well, we know that the current President of the USA would never give a speech like this, but you know what I mean.)

President Coolidge delivered this speech on July 5, 1926 (88 years ago today).  Once cannot help but scratch their head and wonder what has happened to this country from the time this speech was delivered until today.

Here is the excerpted speech (copied from Breitbart.com).

"We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to those who participated in such a mighty event that we annually observe the fourth day of July. At the end of 150 years the four corners of the earth unite in coming to Philadelphia as to a holy shrine in acknowledgement of a service so great, which a few inspired men here rendered to humanity, that it is still the preeminent support of free government throughout the world.



It is not so much then for the purpose of undertaking to proclaim new theories and principles that this annual celebration is maintained, but rather to reaffirm and reestablish those old theories and principles which time and the unerring logic of events have demonstrated to be sound.


We are obliged to conclude that the Declaration of Independence represented the movement of a people. It was in no sense a rising of the oppressed and downtrodden. It brought no scum to the surface, for the reason that colonial society had developed no scum. The great body of the people were accustomed to privations, but they were free from depravity. If they had poverty, it was not of the hopeless kind that afflicts great cities, but the inspiring kind that marks the spirit of the pioneer. The American Revolution represented the informed and mature convictions of a great mass of independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people who knew their rights, and possessed the courage to dare to maintain them.


The Declaration of Independence was the result of the seasoned and deliberate thought of the dominant portion of the people of the Colonies. It was in no sense a radical movement but took on the dignity of a resistance to illegal usurpations. It was conservative and represented the action of the colonists to maintain their constitutional rights which from time immemorial had been guaranteed to them under the law of the land.


It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history. Great ideas do not burst upon the world unannounced. They are reached by a gradual development over a length of time usually proportionate to their importance.


No one can examine this record and escape the conclusion that in the great outline of its principles the Declaration was the result of the religious teachings of the preceding period. They are found in the texts, the sermons, and the writings of the early colonial clergy who were earnestly undertaking to instruct their congregations in the great mystery of how to live. They preached equality because they believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They justified freedom by the text that we are all created in the divine image, all partakers of the divine spirit.


This was the purpose which the fathers cherished. In order that they might have freedom to express these thoughts and opportunity to put them into action, whole congregations with their pastors had migrated to the colonies. These great truths were in the air that our people breathed. Whatever else we may say of it, the Declaration of Independence was profoundly American.


In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish.


Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments.The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.


Ours is a government of the people. It represents their will. Its officers may sometimes go astray, but that is not a reason for criticizing the principles of our institutions. The real heart of the American Government depends upon the heart of the people. It is from that source that we must look for all genuine reform. It is to that cause that we must ascribe all our results.


There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical changes.


No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first."

Now, don't you think they ought to teach stuff like this in our public schools today?  Maybe, if they did, the future of this country would look much brighter than it does right now.