Tea & No Sympathy

I've been heartbroken all weekend reading about this lunatic in Tucson who tried to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. (You can see my endless thoughts about the situation on Facebook or Twitter, ) Anyone with half a brain saw something like this coming. But that I saw it coming in my "home" state makes it all the more disturbing.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was right when he called Arizona the "Mecca" of hatred and bigotry. He's taking a lot of heat for his comments -- 20 people were shot and six people are dead and so many are still in deep denial -- but what I've seen in my 20 years away from the Grand Canyon State sickens me too, and makes me wonder why a place with so many great people has been so easily seduced by the brilliantly rebranded Ku Klux Klan, better known as "the Tea Party." (It's been two years, Arizona, the black man isn't that scary -- is he?)

"I think we're the tombstone of the United States of America," Dupnik said Arizona. "To try to inflame the public on a daily basis 24 hours a day, seven days a week has impact on people, especially who are unbalanced personalities to begin with."

Let's hope this tragic event is the beginning of a positive change in U.S. history, and not the start of America's descent into the "kill those we disagree with" way of life we've seen in Pakistan and so many other parts of the world, a view too often shared with conservative wingnuts who can't accept the decisions of the democracy in which they live.