Commentary (Warning: Contains Images With Strong Language) | America is going crazy. There is no other way to say it. Our nation experienced a terrible, heartbreaking tragedy when 20 young children and six wonderful teachers were gunned down by Adam Lanza at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Instead of bringing the country together and grieving as one, the Newton, Connecticut massacre has managed to bring out the worst in many Americans, including some of our most outspoken politicians and public figures.
There is hardly a faction, party or political philosophy that has not entered the fray and used Adam Lanza’s rampage to promote their particular agenda. Talking heads and pundits are determined to throw good taste and human decency in the trash to ram their point of view down the collective throats of their audience. Politicians are doing the damnedest to damage the opposition with every word. Even the so-called political activists and university professor’s have joined the circus with some of the foulest comments imaginable.
Take for example, Erik Loomis, an assistant professor of American history at the University of Rhode Island. He went on a violent rampage of his own on his twitter account, tweeting one obscene tweet after the other demanding the murder of high ranking NRA officials. His behavior earned him a visit from the Rhode Island police and a statement by the university denying any support for his behavior. If my child were a student in one of his classes, I would be demanding a meeting with the Dean of his department to find out exactly what he is teaching his impressionable young minds about our nation in his American History class.
Here is a short sample of the sickness Erik Lommis spewed out to the world on Twitter.
@ErikLoomis @rmccrory I was heartbroken in the first 20 mass murders. Now I want Wayne LaPierre’s head on a stick.— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) December 15, 2012 14 Dec 12
The Rude Pundit@rudepundit First fucker to say the solution is for elementary school teachers to carry guns needs to get beaten to death. 14 Dec 12 Retweeted by Erik Loomis
@ErikLoomis Looks like the National Rifle Association has murdered some more children.— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) December 14, 2012 14 Dec 12
@ErikLoomis @fmanjoo There are words. Fuck the National Rifle Association and its policies to put crazy guns in everyone’s hands.— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) December 14, 2012 14 Dec 12
@ErikLoomis You are goddamn right we should politicize this tragedy. Fuck the NRA. Wayne LaPierre should be in prison.— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) December 14, 2012 14 Dec 12
@ErikLoomis Wayne LaPierre is a criminal and should be in prison for complicity with murder. 27 counts.— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) December 14, 2012 14 Dec 12
@ErikLoomis Dear Republicans, Do you know the definition of family values? It’s not having our kids FUCKING SHOT AT SCHOOL!! Fuck the NRA.— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) December 14, 2012 14 Dec 12
@ErikLoomis
Larry Pratt and the group Gun Owners of America are terrorists and should be dealt with as such. thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/1…— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) December 15, 2012 14 Dec 12 @ErikLoomis The NRA pushes for policies that make it complicit in mass murders in the US and Mexico. Repeal the 2nd Amendment.— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) December 18, 2012 18 Dec 12
Joining Loomis in his vulgar exploitation of the tragedy in Newtown was the dependable cranky favorite of progressives, Michael Moore, the multi-millionaire, limousine liberal who wants to end capitalism. Moore took the same route as Loomis, using Twitter to accuse the NRA of murder and call America a nation of killers.
I hate to say it, but killing is our way. We began America w/ genocide,then built it w/ slaves. The shootings will continue- it’s who we are
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) December 16, 2012
The NRA hates freedom. They don’t want you to have the freedom to send your children to school expect them to come home alive
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) December 14, 2012
Of course, the pundits and critics on the right of the political spectrum have been just as quick to exploit the murder of children as part of their ongoing campaign to destroy President Obama at any cost. While there are legitimate issues to take up with our President, using the murder of children to attack Obama is inexcusable.
Conservative powerhouse, The Western Center For Journalism savagely attacked the President after his speech from the White House about the murders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. In an unsigned article on the WCJ website, the President was accused of shedding fake tears over the murdered children and then called him a murderer for his policy on abortion. The article makes no effort to suggest solutions and has no purpose other than to simply attack a President that Conservatives hate with a capital H.
“Barack Obama cried and cried and cried for the Sandy Hook Elementary school children two hours after the massacre.”
“Except if you looked close, there were no tears.”
“Why would a man cry anyway who has supported the murder of fifty million babies since Roe v. Wade?”
“Why would a man cry anyway who has dumped hundreds of millions into murder factory Planned Parenthood?”
“Why would a man cry anyway who voted three times against banning the barbaric practice of letting babies born alive after botched abortions die alone in soiled utility rooms?”
“The answer: he wouldn’t cry.”
Another Western Center For Journalism article , again unsigned, went even further, called the President “a lifelong supporter of infanticide” and accused prominent gun control advocates of wishing there had been more children killed in Newtown.
“After all, are we to believe that this lifelong supporter of infanticide gives a damn about the death of a few children who had simply escaped an earlier fate at the hands of Planned Parenthood? Does anyone remember the image of Bill Clinton suddenly beginning to weep at the funeral of Ron Brown after being unexpectedly caught laughing on camera at a joke someone had told him?”
“Obama, the Brady Bunch, Michael Bloomberg, Diane Feinstein, and the rest of those who advocate gun confiscation under the guise of “common sense legislation” regret one thing only–that even MORE children weren’t killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School so as to further weaken the resolve of the NRA and other 2nd Amendment rights organizations and supporters.”
Another Conservative talking point exploits the collateral damage done by US drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan to attack the President. The Athens Banner-Herald ran a piece by British journalist and conspiracy theorist David Icke last Saturday that manages to accuse Obama of fake tears and war crimes in a few short paragraphs.
“Obama, fake tears, and calls for gun control. What if 18 Middle Eastern children were killed by a drone? Do you care that over 168 children have been killed by drones?”
“ Barack Obama signals he will push for gun control after Connecticut massacre, calling for ‘meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this’”
“President Obama wipes away fake tears over mass shooting”
“Spot the genuine tears? No. Spot the B-movie acting? Easy.”
“But then, fake tears are part of Obama’s image-manipulating modus operandi. It is heartless people who have to act – genuinely hearted people don’t.”
“Where are even the fake tears, Obama, for all the children with brown faces that you have had killed week after week by drone attacks that you sign off and sanction?”
Even America’s political leaders are getting into the act. California’s US Senator Diane Feinstein led the charge as usual, declaring that she will introduce a bill to ban assault weapons the minute Congress reconvenes, unless the President issues another Executive Order and beats her to the punch.
Feinstein hates guns and makes no bones about it, She has been pushing Federal gun control for years and even melted down a gun into a cross and gave it to Pope John Paul II. When discussing guns in 2004, she made her position quite clear:
“If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them… Mr. and Mrs. America, turn ’em all in, I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren’t here.”
Feinstein is the reigning queen of the gun grabbers and New York City Mayor Bloomberg is the undisputed king. The mayor actually had the nerve to make a gun control speech after his own NYPD officers shot nine innocent bystanders taking down a suspect in front of the Empire State Building. The mayor also has a heavily armed six man security detail that works in three shifts totaling 18 officers and he still does not understand anyone else’s right to self defense.
Bloomberg took his usual over the top gun control rhetoric to an extreme yesterday, with a comment that made his suggestion that every police officer in America walk off the job until guns are banned seem like a stroke of genius.
“The U.S. Army has a rifle — they call it a rifle, I would call it a cannon; it’s attached to the front of a tank or a moving vehicle. It shoots a nuclear warhead. The NRA would say, ‘Oh, that’s a gun. And people have a right to have that.’”
We are witnessing a truly epic fail on the part of our leaders and public figures in the wake of an deplorable tragedy. Instead of working together to discover more effective ways to keep lethal weapons of any sort, guns, explosives or toxic chemicals, out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill, we have a war of words that has only one purpose. Each side simply wants to do as much political damage to the other side as possible.
Gun Control supporters like Feinstein and Bloomberg are just hoping that the Republicans will oppose any new gun control legislation so they can start painting the Republican party as a party that wants children to die. The Republicans, for their part. are more than willing to label anyone who is against open ownership of guns as gun grabbers who hate the Constitution.
The usual suspects on the fringe from Michael Moore to the Western Center For Journalism are only interested in inflaming the passions of their support base. They will happily resort to the most inflammatory language possible and then refuse to engage in any rational, civil debate. No solutions are found and nothing ever changes, but you will get another email asking for a larger donation.
As I wrote this column, our President came on the air and held a press conference While I am not an Obama supporter, I was greatly encouraged by his words. He spoke of respecting both points of view and a need to find a middle ground. He spoke in support of the Second Amendment, while finding better ways to end the out of control violence in America.
The President spoke of convening a commission to find solutions. He didn’t scream “Ban Guns” or use inflammatory rhetoric. Instead he established a starting point and asked everyone to work together. He concluded with these words:
“We can preserve our Second Amendment and still get serious about guns safety. We can get serious about making sure another Newtown or Aurora never occurs.”