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SALT LAKE CITY -- In the immediate aftermath of the violence in Arizona, the most common, and certainly most accurate word used in reference to the tragedy is, "senseless."
At this early juncture, it is indeed difficult to make any sense of the cause or motivation behind the shootings. Nevertheless, that hasn't prevented those who would exploit this episode for political purposes to jump quickly to the game.
There were those who implied that the sharp rhetoric of the Tea Party movement has fueled an environment where violence against a government official is a natural and perhaps inevitable emission. There was the counter-accusation that laying blame to the Tea Party is designed to further a socialist agenda, laying groundwork for limiting the rights of free speech, or access to firearms.
Please.
Six people are dead, their families in grief. An elected official rests in a medically-induced coma. The friends and classmates of a beaming third-grader are left to process the fragility of life, way before it should be their time to engage such a confrontation.
As more details emerge, this should and will serve as a backdrop for several national discussions. Is there adequate intervention available for the deeply mentally disturbed? Are elected officials properly protected? Are firearms too easily obtained by those who are clearly and dangerously unbalanced?
It is the sign of a healthy society that such tragedies are met with sincere efforts to fix whatever problems allowed such violence to happen in the first place. In the hours after the shooting, the reaction from some ideologues and politicians was far from healthy.
KSL believes the coming days are a time to respect the grief of the victims, and a time for national introspection, about the nature of our relationship to each other as citizens of a nation that has long prided itself on its ability to remain united under the most serious challenges.
E-mail: cpsarras@ksl.com
