Video below is of Sarah Palin's response to the tragedy of the Arizona shootings which left six dead and many more wounded, some in critical and/or serious condition and the "reprehensible" blood libel journalists and pundits engaged in immediately following the massacre.Her response is to those that just hours after the shootings were already looking to cast blame on Palin and Tea Party members without one shred of proof (which still has not be produced) showing the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner was on any Tea Party email list or read anything Palin said or did.
The accusations flew fast and furiously from the far left, then reported by the media, without anyone, not even once showing any connection. Completely irresponsible behavior from pundits, but in my mind, ethical malpractice on the part of the media who is supposed to be held to a higher standard and report facts, not rhetorical hyperbole.
Sarah Palin: "America's Enduring Strength" from Sarah Palin on Vimeo.
Sarah Palin's Facebook provides the transcript:
Like millions of Americans I learned of the tragic events in Arizona on Saturday, and my heart broke for the innocent victims. No words can fill the hole left by the death of an innocent, but we do mourn for the victims’ families as we express our sympathy.
I agree with the sentiments shared yesterday at the beautiful Catholic mass held in honor of the victims. The mass will hopefully help begin a healing process for the families touched by this tragedy and for our country.
Our exceptional nation, so vibrant with ideas and the passionate exchange and debate of ideas, is a light to the rest of the world. Congresswoman Giffords and her constituents were exercising their right to exchange ideas that day, to celebrate our Republic’s core values and peacefully assemble to petition our government. It’s inexcusable and incomprehensible why a single evil man took the lives of peaceful citizens that day.
There is a bittersweet irony that the strength of the American spirit shines brightest in times of tragedy. We saw that in Arizona. We saw the tenacity of those clinging to life, the compassion of those who kept the victims alive, and the heroism of those who overpowered a deranged gunman.
Like many, I’ve spent the past few days reflecting on what happened and praying for guidance. After this shocking tragedy, I listened at first puzzled, then with concern, and now with sadness, to the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event.
President Reagan said, “We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.” Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies, not with those who proudly voted in the last election.
The last election was all about taking responsibility for our country’s future. President Obama and I may not agree on everything, but I know he would join me in affirming the health of our democratic process. Two years ago his party was victorious. Last November, the other party won. In both elections the will of the American people was heard, and the peaceful transition of power proved yet again the enduring strength of our Republic.
Vigorous and spirited public debates during elections are among our most cherished traditions. And after the election, we shake hands and get back to work, and often both sides find common ground back in D.C. and elsewhere. If you don’t like a person’s vision for the country, you’re free to debate that vision. If you don’t like their ideas, you’re free to propose better ideas. But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.
There are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal. And they claim political debate has somehow gotten more heated just recently. But when was it less heated? Back in those “calm days” when political figures literally settled their differences with dueling pistols? In an ideal world all discourse would be civil and all disagreements cordial. But our Founding Fathers knew they weren’t designing a system for perfect men and women. If men and women were angels, there would be no need for government. Our Founders’ genius was to design a system that helped settle the inevitable conflicts caused by our imperfect passions in civil ways. So, we must condemn violence if our Republic is to endure.
As I said while campaigning for others last March in Arizona during a very heated primary race, “We know violence isn’t the answer. When we ‘take up our arms’, we’re talking about our vote.” Yes, our debates are full of passion, but we settle our political differences respectfully at the ballot box – as we did just two months ago, and as our Republic enables us to do again in the next election, and the next. That’s who we are as Americans and how we were meant to be. Public discourse and debate isn’t a sign of crisis, but of our enduring strength. It is part of why America is exceptional.
No one should be deterred from speaking up and speaking out in peaceful dissent, and we certainly must not be deterred by those who embrace evil and call it good. And we will not be stopped from celebrating the greatness of our country and our foundational freedoms by those who mock its greatness by being intolerant of differing opinion and seeking to muzzle dissent with shrill cries of imagined insults.
Just days before she was shot, Congresswoman Giffords read the First Amendment on the floor of the House. It was a beautiful moment and more than simply “symbolic,” as some claim, to have the Constitution read by our Congress. I am confident she knew that reading our sacred charter of liberty was more than just “symbolic.” But less than a week after Congresswoman Giffords reaffirmed our protected freedoms, another member of Congress announced that he would propose a law that would criminalize speech he found offensive.
It is in the hour when our values are challenged that we must remain resolved to protect those values. Recall how the events of 9-11 challenged our values and we had to fight the tendency to trade our freedoms for perceived security. And so it is today.
Let us honor those precious lives cut short in Tucson by praying for them and their families and by cherishing their memories. Let us pray for the full recovery of the wounded. And let us pray for our country. In times like this we need God’s guidance and the peace He provides. We need strength to not let the random acts of a criminal turn us against ourselves, or weaken our solid foundation, or provide a pretext to stifle debate.
America must be stronger than the evil we saw displayed last week. We are better than the mindless finger-pointing we endured in the wake of the tragedy. We will come out of this stronger and more united in our desire to peacefully engage in the great debates of our time, to respectfully embrace our differences in a positive manner, and to unite in the knowledge that, though our ideas may be different, we must all strive for a better future for our country. May God bless America.
This was exactly the right response in the form of a video release.
She rightly spoke of the tragic events and the individual responsibility of Jared Lee Loughner in his actions first (without mentioning him by name).
She went on to take journalists and pundits to task over their irresponsible behavior and attacks correctly calling it blood libel.
Then she pointed out the irony of Gabrielle Gifford, Congresswoman from Arizona who is in critical condition after being shot in the head, reading aloud the first amendment of the Constitution on the House floor, just days before the Arizona massacre and the rhetoric from Democratic lawmakers (although she did not specify what political party in this response)after the shootings proposing to limit that very free speech.
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Palin is not the first nor will she be the last calling the left out on the "blood libel" charge. Two days ago, Glenn Harlan Reynolds wrote a must-read piece called "The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel."
I understand the desperation that Democrats must feel after taking a historic beating in the midterm elections and seeing the popularity of ObamaCare plummet while voters flee the party in droves. But those who purport to care about the health of our political community demonstrate precious little actual concern for America's political well-being when they seize on any pretext, however flimsy, to call their political opponents accomplices to murder.
Where is the decency in that?
The aftermath of the tragedy that occurred in Arizona has highlighted the good and bad that reside in America.
The Bad
It has highlighted how political pundits and the media will grab on to "reprehensible" story lines proving the expression "if it bleeds it leads". It has highlighted how politicians, elected officials and political pundits will use anything, even murder and mayhem to try to score political points. It has shown Americans that certain politicians will use a tragic massacre of innocent lives to further their political agenda. It has shown the irresponsibility of the media.
The Good
It has also shown the other side of the bad, the good.
It has shown that good people, bikers, Arizona citizens and concerned residents of America will stand up to the evil of the Westboro Baptist Church and place themselves as human barriers to protect the families of those that died on Saturday in the Arizona shootings from those that plan to protest at the youngest victim's (nine years old) funeral, by praising the murderer.
It has shown other politicians prepared to fight for our first and second amendment rights.
It has shown the left, the right and those right down the political middle praying together for the lives of those severely injured, holding vigils outside the hospital and standing together to condemn the actions of a madman.
It has shown that Americans watch, listen and are able to separate the political hyperbole and still understand that one man's actions do not reflect on society as a whole as a CBS poll showed clearly where 60 percent of Americans assert that political rhetoric is not to blame for the Arizona massacre that occurred last Saturday.
As Sarah Palin so succinctly phrased it, it has shown America's enduring strength.
[Update] Confirming the CBS poll's findings, Rasmussen also finds that 58 percent of Adults believe the Arizona shooting was an act of random violence by an unstable person and not related to politics.
In other words, as I said yesterday, the majority of Americans are not buying into the far left's spin about the Arizona shootings.
I would love to see a poll conducted on how Americans feel about those that attempted and failed to spin it and used the tragedy as political fodder.
Followup post: Palin has not retreated, she has reloaded- Yup, I said it!!
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