Saturday, January 15, 2011

A Week Later

On January 8, 2011 at 10:10 A.M. MST in Tucson, Arizona, Representative Gabrielle Giffords was holding a "Congress On Your Corner" meet and great. A man named Jared Loughner came up to Rep. Giffords and shot her in the head. After shooting Rep. Giffords, he proceeded to shoot randomly into the crowd. The gun had run out of ammunition and Jared pulled out another magazine and dropped it. Unwounded bystander Patricia Maisch grabbed the magazine while another bystander clubbed Jared in the head. Jared was then tackled to the ground by 74-year-old retired colonel Bill Badger, who had been shot. Jared was then held down by Maisch and bystanders Roger Sulzgeber and Joseph Zamudio.

The first call from the scene to emergency services was received at 10:11 am. While waiting for help to arrive, Giffords' intern Daniel Hernández Jr., applied pressure to the gunshot wound on her forehead, and made sure she did not choke on her blood. Hernández is credited with saving Giffords' life. David and Nancy Bowman, a married doctor and nurse who were shopping in the store, immediately set up triage and attended to nine-year-old Christina-Taylor Green. Police arrived on the scene at 10:15 am, with paramedics arriving at 10:16 am. Badger observed the assailant attempting to discard a small bag containing money and identification, which was recovered by the officers.

Five people died at the scene, including Chief Judge John Roll and Giffords' community outreach director Gabe Zimmerman. Christina-Taylor Green was later pronounced dead at the hospital. At least one gunshot victim was transported to Northwest Medical Center while the remaining injured were treated at University Medical Center in Tucson.

Before I continue on, I would like to offer my condolences to the families of those injured and killed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those still fighting for their lives and to the families and friends of those injured and killed.

I find it sick that I actually have to address the statements and ideas in the hours and days after the tragedy. Unfortunately, there are many who think of their agenda before they think of the fact that people are fighting for their lives. Obviously I can't address every statement and idea that came out through the media and public figures but I can hit the key points that connects them all. First off, only one person is to blame for this act, Jared Loughner. After discovering who the shooter was, it was discovered that he had a history of acting out and having issues.

While watching the news within the hour after the shooting, I decided to see what the liberal media was making of the situation. I turned to MSNBC and their discussion wasn't about those shot and their families, their discussion was about gun laws in Arizona. Their first thought wasn't of the families and victims, it was of their agenda. For 10 minutes I watched in some hope that they would show that shred of humanity they claim they have, they didn't show an ounce of worry or thought for the victims in that 10 minute period.

Pima County Sheriff, Clarence W. Dupnik, came out hours after the shooting with no evidence collected or really any leads and stated that it was the violent rhetoric that had led to the shooting.

This was the claim of many in the media. Without any evidence or any information, this was the claim of those who claim to report the facts. The media and politicians claimed that Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin were to blame for the shooting. They came on and the very first thing they did was start pointing fingers at people. Very different from the Fort Hood shooting when they continuously said to not jump to conclusions. Yet this time that was all they did.

Within hours of the shooting, in D.C., Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (NY-D) and Rep. Peter King (NY-R) were already coming up with gun restriction legislation and having their staff write it up. Within hours these two, from both sides, were already thinking of their agendas and not their colleague who was in the hospital fighting for her life. They didn't know any facts or have any leads, but they jumped to the conclusion to create gun laws to restrict the second amendment.

At NPR, Daisy Hernandez, made a very racist statement and just followed the trend of caring more about her agenda than worrying about those who were fighting for their lives.

"I wasn't the only person on Saturday who rushed to her Android when news came of the Tucson shooting.

What I wanted to know was the killer's surname.

My eyes scanned the mobile papers. I held my breath. Finally, I saw it: Jared Loughner. Not a Ramirez, Gonzalez or Garcia. It's safe to say there was a collective sigh of brown relief when the Tucson killer turned out to be a gringo.

I admit sadly that it was only after I saw the shooter's gringo surname that I was able to go on and read the rest of the news about those who lost their lives on Saturday and those who, like Rep. Giffords, were severely wounded."


The definition of "gringo" - a foreigner, esp. one of U.S. or British descent. First, she doesn't consider herself American apparently. Second, if a white person had said this about Latinos, the media would be all over them. In fact, Juan Williams made a statement less severe than this and NPR fired him. The liberal double standard strikes again.

On Wednesday night at the University of Arizona, a memorial was held for those injured and killed in the shooting. President Obama and Michelle were there, as were AG Holder, and DHS Secretary Napolitano. But amazingly, they weren't the disappointment of the memorial, the crowd was. The crowd acted as if it was a pep rally or the first campaign stop for Obama 2012. When Janet Napolitano said that Christina Greene had been shot and killed, the crowd cheered. Who cheers when someone says that a 9-year-old girl was shot and killed? Throughout it all, Obama was squirming in his sit from embarrassment and a little annoyance. Why was he embarrassed and annoyed? Well, these people acting like savages and showing not an ounce of care were his people. These were the die-hard Obama fans who yelled his name throughout the whole memorial. Here he had written a somber speech for the memorial and his people were acting like it was a championship game.

As for Obama's speech, I considered quite good. The only issues I had through it was his slight path through the politics of the situation but aside from that it was okay, and I'm a very big critic of Obama's. I, like many others, looked for those key words and phrases that he's had before. We looked for those things to nail him on, but we found very little. The biggest thing we found sickening was the crowd, and the fact that t-shirts used in Obama's 2008 campaign were handed out to the crowd. With that news of the t-shirts, it brought into question if this was in fact a campaign stop for Obama. But going on the speech alone, he did quite well and as with anyone, no matter what their ideology, we'll give him kudos for that. But he has to keep it up and listen to the people.

The weeks and months ahead as the new Congress get into action, we will see what has changed from last session. We'll see what language comes up from the Tucson shooting. Through it all, we have to remember that no one but Jared Loughner is at fault for this shooting. It's not the gun laws, it's not the legislatures, and it's not the media. This was the act of 1 man who had some issues through his life and never got help for those issues. We have to get back to the point that when something happens, the first thought isn't about an agenda or the political cost, but about the victims. The Tea Party and 912project movement isn't just about politics, but it's about changing yourself and becoming an overall better person. Because when we start with ourselves, we can change the world.