I’d just returned from the gym on Saturday morning and was about to head for the shower when Tucson Weekly publisher Tom Lee called. I answered the phone; Tom said something unintelligible and hung up.
I was about to call him back, but for some reason, I decided to quickly check my e-mail first. I saw this message from him: Twitter feeds are coming in that Congresswoman Giffords and eight other people were shot this morning in Tucson.
What followed have been the four most emotionally draining days of my journalism career (and the careers of my amazing colleagues). By far.
Of course, we now know that the events of Saturday, Jan. 8, were far worse than even Tom’s horrific e-mail described. We know that six people lost their lives (including, heartbreakingly, a 9-year-old girl); that more than a dozen others were injured; and that—as of this Tuesday-evening writing—miraculously, Gabrielle Giffords will probably survive, according to doctors.
We know that a very messed-up young man, Jared Lee Loughner, is the alleged murderer.
Sadly, we also know that talking heads and politicians are starting to point fingers. Some are blaming Sarah Palin, Jon Justice, et al., for playing some sort of role in creating a climate that led to the massacre. (They didn’t; this was apparently the work of one incredibly sick 22-year-old, period.) In response, media figures from the right are claiming, or at least insinuating, that their charged, sometimes hateful words aren’t harmful. (They are. Very much so.)
There’s also a lot that we don’t know. We don’t know how complete Giffords’ recovery will be. We don’t know what the long-term fallout, political and otherwise, will be. Well, whatever happens, I promise you that the Tucson Weekly will be here to chronicle and explain it all.
Meanwhile … although most of us are sad, angry and perhaps a little afraid, we have to keep going. That’s why, outside of our Currents section, we’re bringing you the same newsweekly that was planned before the horrors of Saturday unfolded—including our Spring Arts Preview.
Enjoy, or at least try to enjoy. We’re gonna get through this.
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2011.
Mr. Boegle, thank you so much for your honest, straight-forward comments. Unlike Mr. Danehy, who is so biased against any one having
even a vague allegiance to the Republican party, your column is very refreshing and tells it like most sane people see it at this point.
Gee Jimmy, I apologize;
I guess I was wrong on the night of 1/7/2011 when I called you out for allowing fascists to promote hate speech, death, and suffering all over this venue as if they owned it; and you felt compelled to delete my contribution because of a couple of well chosen expletives for emphasis. But no, I maintain that the sentiment was valid, and now, undeniably accurate.
Can you say Germany in 1934?
I haven’t seen any of the media darlings on the right back down on the rhetoric even a little bit; if anything, they have cranked it up ( Blood Libel? Really? ). In Germany at that time, community leaders, ministers, journalists, yeah, I know! Journalists actually existed back then! Were calling for cooler heads to prevail. What is the quote? For evil to succeed all that is required is for good men to do nothing? ( Izzy, if you are still engaged in this venue, I just thought of you poignantly, God bless ).
In other words, while our liberal leaders spend their limited “Arizona Political capital” apologizing for things that they didn’t even do in the first place, our freedoms are disappearing in increments. Never enough at one time to incite an uprising to stop these outrages, but before you know it, there will be no one left to stand and fight beside you.
It would be really great if all we had to do is ask ourselves “What would Jesus Do?”. But FOX news, the Koch brothers, and all our bought and paid for Senators and sadly many of our Representatives in the people’s house, are going to look out for themselves, and themselves alone, as they do the bidding of their corporate masters.
While you still possess it, you have “a” bully pulpit here in Tucson. Use it to stand up and fight Jimmy. Do not succumb to Nevil Chamberlain syndrome. We need you brother. A storm is coming, one so dark
and violent that we might not survive to rebuild.
Robert Alexander Dumas
Well Jimmy,
Whad’ya think son? They are actually arresting the shooting victims now. I know! Couldn’t have seen that one coming. I really can’t even express my angst with words.
Let us continue to rationalize to the nth degree. Evil doesn’t exist in this world. It couldn’t possibly.
They are shooting us down nineteen at a time now, when will it be time to cease the round robin of kum-by-ah.
Just as an aside, why are we having bomb scares, every few days? I mean other than the one car bombing of a mob connected real estate guy ( tribianni? ) I don’t remember a bomb ever going off in Tucson( & I’ve lived here since 1963 ); yet every few days we seem to need to shut down a major intersection, evacuate unwilling people from their homes, and detonate some harmless piece of crap that clearly wasn’t a bomb. What’s up with that Jimmy? If you could, please enlighten us.
Robert Alexander Dumas
What in the hell are you saying? That because I allow people who I disagree with to post on this site, somehow this led to Jan. 8? No, YOU enlighten us.
Wohhh; slow the hell down Jimmy,
I know you are one of the good guys! I actually like you, and respect you.
I am trying to incite you to exact a greater influence ; because you are in fact in a position to do so, and not many of us are.
I believe we have arrived at a specific point of great import, that is not being acknowledged.
That we are witnessing the birth of facsism in this nation, that since at least 2000 ( when we witnessed a president being appointed [ not contained within the Constitution ] ); the patriot act, torture, GITMO etc… need I go on?………..
There is much going on now that is more than a little disturbing. We need you to be more than the editor of some nebulous entity that is struggling to find an identity as print news dies a slow death.
You must lead. Now.
Freaking enlightening enough?
Robert Alexander Dumas
Jimmy,
One thought further.
Let them post all the vitriol they wish; so long as it is done under their actual name. I’m willing to bet that abscent anonymity, the hate speech disappears.
Robert Alexander Dumas
The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the deaths of several other people that was carried out by Jared Loughner has me wondering: was he induced, perhaps on a subliminal level, to commit this heinous crime?
It has always been this way: as soon as Washington starts debate on another “gun control” bill, in this case imposing new laws on border states’ sales of guns, ‘something’ always happens, some lone nut job “goes postal”. And, of course, “guns” get the blame – again. And again, and again…
I once read a novel by the late Robin Moore titled “The Fifth Estate” in which a sinister super-evil super-genius wanted to take control of the United States by electing men and women he had his thumb on to the Presidency and both houses of Congress, by bankrolling their poltical campaigns, and by other means, as well.
One way he got political people he couldn’t influence out of the way was having a psychologist on the payroll that scouted around looking for unstable people he could subliminally induce to kill specific people the super-evil super-genius wanted out of the way.
Is that what has happened—again? Is there someone or some organization creating “Manchurian Candidates” and triggering them?
signed,
Marc @ The Writer’s Block