Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Judge, the 9 year old girl and all the rest are representative of the violence a lot of people, pundits, talk show hosts, economists etc. have flat out stated is coming. The violence I hear most warn against because it is exactly what certain factions need to "get to the next stage". Conspiratorial you say? Maybe, maybe not. The thing is, is the whole economic, political, social situation is a perfect storm for violence and the building of fear. America has been at this precipice before. Recent memory was all the civil rights and anti war protesting of the 60 & 70s. (Which I personally lived through). We even went over the precipice such as at Kent State and with the Weather Underground to name a couple more famous situations. The thing that shows through to me very strikingly is the top down divisiveness that is not only here but seemingly being fostered. It seems like people actually want blood! Regular, everyday people want blood and someone to blame. There are a lot of reasons for this, economic, political, idealogical and race even. Stuff I really thought we were beyond such as race and the old Socialism vs. Democracy argument. It's all being fueled through economic fear among fear in other quarters too. In either case it's FEAR that is fueling all this divisiveness. I was observing Twitter earlier and it's a good thing the Internet by it's very definition kept everyone miles apart or riots would have broken out. Martial law imposed. Essential supplies interrupted. A very good chance of general anarchy ensuing. This socially inept, militarily disgruntled, schizophrenic sick puppy Laughner probably would have surfaced no matter what the conditions of the country but the timing right now is very bad. The fear and frustration levels now are at such levels that it wouldn't take much to turn a personal tragedy such as this today into the kind of events that have toppled countries in the past. I think, "not here, the U.S. is to big and stable". A country, even our size, is only as stable as it's people and the people here and now are very, very, unstable. One look at Twitter and other Social networking sites earlier today would have shown you. It's easy to get caught up in it all. Or, lock the door and try to ignore it all. The question is how do we help? How and where do we stand and say enough is enough? Before enough is too much.
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