Belle of Liberty

Letting Freedom Ring

Monday, January 10, 2011

The Tuscon Jabberwocky

“‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"  C.S. Lewis

While the pundits of the Liberal Left were using their imaginations to solve the despicable crime of who shot Congresswoman Giffords, and killed six other people (I don't understand why he's charged with only two counts of murder), including a 9 year-old girl who was born on Sept. 11th, and injured 19 others, the real journalists were methodically interviewing witnesses, checking the records, investigating the crime and uncovering the facts.

According to Fox News, “a high school friend of his has given a detailed account of his personality and background on her Twitter page over the past few days. According to Parker, Loughner had ‘a lot of friends until he got alcohol poisoning in ‘06’ and dropped out of high school.

“She described him as ‘left wing’ and ‘quite liberal’ and ‘oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy.’ Parker described him as a ‘pot head’ who was into rock music, though she hadn't seen him since 2007.

"I think he slowly descended in a psychotic break. Something in him snapped. He wasn't always like this," she wrote.

He went on to accuse the government of “controlling his mind.” His favorite books were “Mein Kampf” and “The Communist Manifesto.” He dropped out of Mountainview High School. At Pima Community College, the campus police were called five different times to break up disruptions he caused in class and in the library. His bizarred behaviour, laughing and talking to himself in rambling rants, so frightened his classmates and teachers, that one classmate sat near the door with her handbag in hand, just in case. One teacher was afraid to turn his back on Loughner to write on the blackboard for fear his student would pull out a gun.

Loughner had a long-standing grudge against Congresswoman Giffords that predates Sarah Palin and the Tea Parties. Allegedly, he sent her threatening notes and stalked her at her public appearances. His ramblings give no indication of any party preference; he’s officially registered as an independent.

In short, he was not a left-wing nut, necessarily, nor a right-wing nut at all. He was just a nut. Period. Instead of throwing accusations at Conservative radio talk show hosts, the Pima County Sheriff should launch an investigation into how such a person managed to legally acquire a gun.

While Congresswoman Giffords fights for her life, Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) is using this tragedy as a ploy to hatch an attack on freedom of speech. In the next few days, she promises Congress will have a bill ready outlawing threatening speech and symbols, such as the crosshairs Sarah Palin used to delineate the presidential campaign strategy.

If they’re going to outlaw any symbols, the very first symbol should be the extremely misleading “peace symbol.” Not to sound like a Jabberwocky nutcase, but if you only knew the truth…

Finally, hats off to columnist Michelle Malkin who posted on her website a veritable rogues’ gallery of Leftist hate-mongers, guilty of every kind of crime from threatening the opposition to actually beating up campaign workers to stealing and destroy campaign signs, physically attacking Conservative candidates, public officials and speakers, to slashing tires and engaging in libel, smearing, mudslinging. This, as opposed to Sarah Palin, guilty of the heinous crime of posting a crosshairs map.

Giffords is hardly the first elected official to be attacked. Abraham Lincoln comes to mind. William McKinley. John and Robert Kennedy. Martin Luther King. George Wallace. Ronald Reagan. Abraham Lincoln, as president, was fond of walking around the city (probably to get away from Mary for awhile). His security staff was appalled and told him they couldn’t guarantee his safety if he took it into his head to do such things.

John Kennedy was told to put the bubbletop on his limousine. His wife, Jackie, wanted it; she didn’t want to muss her hairdo. But Kennedy wanted to be able to reach out to the people. He reasoned that if any killer was determined to get him, they would. And Oswald did because Kennedy made it easy for him.

Still, what is a public official to do? Send in a look-alike to represent them when among the people to answer their questions? Bobby Kennedy was a candidate when he was killed. I met Christie Whitman when she was governor of New Jersey; it was clear to me the poor woman was scared to death. And she had plenty of security.

No one can make any guarantees about crazy people. There’s no sense pontificating to them about the evils of violence. They’re listening to the static between the stations on the dial. We can’t let them get away with hamstringing us, though, interfering with the democratic process. A president, a Congresswoman, a mayor, a judge, a radio talk show host, an author, a business owner or his secretary, regardless of political persuasion, is guaranteed the right to freedom of assembly and of speech. We cannot allow madmen or tyrants rob us of our rights.

We can’t let the lunatics run the asylum – or the country.

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