One beer soaked night in 1987, I arrived home from a party at some dude's house in Casper, Wyoming with two of the five dollars I had taken with me (spent the other three on the keg price for entrance). I went to go check in with my parents, who were fast asleep*. I tapped my Mom on the shoulder and let her know that I was home safe, and she taught me a lesson (drawn out from her in large part due to my Old Mil breath) that it took me a long time to learn.
"With freedom, my son, comes responsibility."
(*100% wide awake)
She probably said a million other things to me and was relievedly admonishing my behavior while trying to do her best to stop the partying from happening again (123 times). Her words fell flat. I heard them, but I didn't get it.
In 1992, fresh out of college and student teaching in the fine little town of Saratoga, Wyoming, I made a really interesting choice. I was single, but engaged and alone, teaching High School English to kids I was only slightly older (and probably less mature) than. I wrote a weekly humor column for the
Branding Iron back then, the University of Wyoming student newspaper. I was cheeky and smug, and a little too vain to be a good journalist, but occasionally wrote something worth reading. On this occasion, however, my readership jumped to levels I never imagined. I wrote about Saratoga- a town of fewer than 2000 residents- and I lit them all up. I made fun of the grocery store's hours, the ratio of bars to churches, and the Hobo Hot Springs Pool's "no alcohol" policy (did you ever see a hobo without a brown bag?). You get the idea.
They let me have it. A kid from Saratoga
drove a copy of the paper home to his folks to make sure thay saw it firsthand. I was banned from showing my face anywhere. I had made a monumental blunder, and forgotten my Mother's lesson.
So,
the pen is mightier than the sword, right? I've heard that
actions speak louder than words, so I'm at a crossroads here in my awful attempt to draw a segue into the recent shootings in Arizona. Everyone wants to point a finger and lay some blame...let me chime in.
I posted a Facebook status update immediately after Fox News declared that Congresswoman Giffords had died (a lot of stations had that wrong). It said, "
RIP Rep. Giffords...apparently if you have a D in your name you better move out of Arizona. Horribly tragic." I got a mixed bag of reaction from it, and the next day, retracted my sentiment as it pertained to the people of Arizona. I had clearly cast a wide net over friends and family that did not deserve to be painted as crazy or fanatical. I remembered my lesson Mom taught me.
Free speech-be it whispered, shouted through a megaphone or written on a website- comes with responsibility. You have the right in this country (without slander or threat of violence) to say what you want. How people perceive and react to you is another matter altogether. That's your bed to lie in and if you aren't willing to accept that your words have an unimaginably wide-open chance to affect another person's actions, feelings or thoughts, you're being flat out irresponsible.
Sarah Palin is not responsible for the shootings in Arizona. She did not know Jared Laughner, she did not insist that mentally unstable people should visit her website and support her tone. There will likely never be any proof that the shooter ever visited her SarahPAC website and looked at the TakeBackthe20 poster she pulled from her website minutes after the shooting. Her office has said that that page should have been taken down immediately after the November election, that it was no longer relevant (responsible?) and that the images on the map are not gun sights, but "surveyor sights". Oh...so we should believe that Sarah wanted her supporters to measure the elevation changes between Gifford's office and Allen Boyd's campaign headquarters? Utter hogwash.
Listen, I support the responsible use of the 1st and 2nd Ammendments. I believe in my right to say what I want (and live with the consequences) and my right to own a gun (which I choose not to excercise unless you count an airsoft rifle). What I will not sit quietly and listen to is the demonizing of the media that Palin has chosen to partake in when referencing her SarahPAC website content. She authorized that content. She "forgot" to take it down. She made the choice to sound gun-sexy as it pertained to removing unwanted (according to their voting record) candidates from office. For her to say that you cannot link her site, it's tone and underlying nuance, to the Saturday massacre is RIDICULOUS.
So why can't she apologize- distance herself from the gunsights by saying they were her bad idea? Why can't she admit that, though obviously not causing this crazy bastard to do what he did, her words might have caused something unintended? I'll tell you why, because she'd lose the race for Mayor of her own household if she so much as accepted a modicum of responsibility for her words and actions. There's just too much at stake (politically and economically) for Sarah to be responsible and honest.
You might not believe that her rhetoric has anything to do with the violence, as she claims she feels, and that's fine. So, this grand coincidence is the harmless sidebar to a fantical killer. Fine.
Then why did she take the website down?
With great freedom comes great responsibility, Sarah.
