My fiance is friends, on facebook, with one of his elementary school teachers. She is a woman of a certain age who, with her family, escaped Cuba around the time Castro took over. As a result, this colors much of her thinking. She is an ardent Tea Party supporter, who says that much of what is going on in the government today reminds her of what was happening back in Cuba around the time the Communists came into power.

 After the Arizona shooting this weekend, my fiance's school teacher posted on facebook a link to one of her congressmen, who said he wanted protection because he feared for his life. Mockingly, she wrote "___saying that he wants protection in order to do his job. I'm speechless. Who's he afraid of, the Mexican drug cartels?" 

It seemed rather obvious to me--not from the drug cartels, but from American citizens wielding guns.   I write about this not to denigrate this woman, but to use her post as an example. American citizens should not be afraid of one another.  The shooting of Gabrielle Gifford was not the first time she was attacked--a year ago, a brick was thrown through her office window. Several other members of Congress who supported the president's healthcare bill received similar vandalisms, as well as threats of violence.

 People: CALM DOWN!!!

 It seems like too many people have been watching V for Vendetta ("People should not be afraid of their governments; governments should be afraid of the people!")--especially that guy who walked into a school board meeting, drew a V on the wall, and started shooting in Panama City, Florida recently: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/15/AR2010121503060.html

Now, it's not known whether Jared Loughner was a fan of Sarah Palin--he liked Mein Kampf, the Communist Manifesto, and thought the government was trying to control people using *grammar*.  But Mrs. Palin's map (the one with the targets on it--you know, the one on which Gifford's name appeared) was certainly not a good idea.

I certainly think that Palin, and others on the Right, do bear some responsibility in this situation. Glenn Beck, with his "'Top Down, Bottom Up, Inside Out' they're-trying-to-destroy-your-country" schtick. Rush Limbaugh, calling it "the Obama regime."  Such radicalized, polarizing rhetoric *does* have an affect. 

Anger, frustration, and an all-pervasive fear that "they" (the government, the terrorists, the Muslims, the gays, the immigrants, etc.) are going to destroy our country will have the same outcome that all the prophets of doom predict: society may very well come apart at the seams. But it won't be because of some nefarious outsider. It'll be because we forgot how to sit down and talk to each other calmly and rationally.

 President Kennedy said "Civility is not a sign of weakness."   Like so many other things he said, President Kennedy was absolutely correct.  Not too long ago, Jon Stewart held a rally in Washington, D.C. "to restore sanity."  I'm hoping we can at least restore civility.