Tragedy in Washington

It was not my intention to begin the Weekly Observer with such a grim topic.  But the tragic incident this past Wednesday at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum brought a number of issues to the forefront.

There are people living among us who do not share fundamental American values — because they disagree with them, because they are unclear as to what those values are, or because they are of unsound mind.  Ironically, disagreement, even lack of clarity, is something that we protect — the irony grows as we struggle to preserve rights, even for those who, given the power, would deny those same rights to those with whom they disagree — even to the extent of killing them.

Perhaps I make too much of this, after all the case can be made that the perpetrator  in this instance was not of sound mind — an anomaly.  But I think this raises another issue: All of us need to remain vigilant and confront hate, confront bullies, confront anything that harms life or liberty — whether the source of the threat is external or internal. And we need to call out those who promote hate — especially if they are popular “infotainers”.  We all have to work to preserve our community — to prevent, to the extent we can, this sort of random act of hate and violence.

— mch 12 June 2009

After writing this, I found some interesting additional reading:
Gerson, The Washington Post
Eye Opener: Does Holocaust Shooting Validate Homeland Security Report?