If only we as a nation cared as much about EVERY shooting victim as we do the current cause celeb. If only the news would follow the stories of recovery of brave service people as they try to recover from horrific wounds, If only we valued the life of everyone as much as the people the media deem newsworthy. Then, we might grow as a country, and move forward....

I weep for my nation when I see what it has become, a nation of soundbites, media events and people with the attention span of a gnat.

Don't get me wrong: the Tucson event was a horrific occurence, seemingly perpetrated by a madman. However, every day there are people shot, stabbed, abused, burned and otherwise killed that we never hear of. Are their lives of less value because of lack of media marketability? What of the lives lost by policemen, firemen, and those who fight our wars? When do you see 24/7 coverage of that? Seldom, right?

Williams said nearly the same thing here , nothing really changed though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co3Spcq6Uzs

That society values all lives and existence equally, while perhaps noble, is purely utopian and never implemented in human history.

The Right Wing in this country has created a massive media machine, spread across all forms of media, that has been cranking out hate and division for years. The interest in the shooting is caused by a nation wondering if it is the incident that will finally touch off the civil war that The Right Wing has been seeking since Obama's election. Gun toting freaks at election events, "we need to take out Harry Reid" rhetoric coupled with calls for a "Second Amendment Solution" and all the other horrific crap pushed 24/7 as screaming lunatics like Mark Levin, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage rage hate into their microphones, if you want to weep, weep for yourself, you come here everyday to defend them. Perhaps you can now see the real cure for this is for people like you to stop defending them and demand from your own side a civil debate.

It damned sure isn't us.

I knew I could count on you for a reasonable response...

If you would watch the news hour you would know those fallen soldiers are honored every Friday. But those are "liberals"; doesn't really count does it?

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

I am talking here about the incessant focus of the media on spotlight issues. I know they list the fallen once a week and one network even has a story or two about someone they choose to "represent" the dead. Has nothing to do with liberal or conservative, it has everything to do with the value of human life being pushed aside by determining what will sell best...

What is happening now has never happened before in the history of the United States. One small fringe of a political party has used the enormous power of monied corporations to build an enormious media monopoly that makes The Communist Party of Russia at their height look like amatuers. Whenever any given event happens, like Pravada or Goebbels on steriods, the truth of the event must be remanufactured by a 10,000 AM radio stations, a thousand websites and one major TV network to fit a single political viewpoint, all the while following Goebbel's dictum that the best propaganda technique is to claim the otherside is doing what they themselves are actually doing.

We live in a society where truth itself is under fire, and it is driving what is essentially a rich, stable democracy, into ruin by constantly portraying us as a society on the verge of ruin, due to what they claim is a Muslim Communist Socialist black man. Never has outright falsehood held so much sway in this nation. Democrats are Communists, the president wasn't even born here, all bobbing about in a sea of right-wing political disinformation that is leading us to disaster, slurped up by stooges who believe even the most ridiculous story if it confirms their viewpoint, like Mgburg's "The shooter shot Giffords because of Nancy Pelosu". Like the lie that a black man was 3/5's of a man, today we are again a society that cannot live in truth, and unless we start, we are going to destroy this country. The artfulness that Bush used to leaverage this new Falsehood Machine into needless, brutal, fascist war, is only the first step in our walk towards destruction. Why don't you shed your tears for the thousands of Iraqi children needlessly murdered by this machine? Who is next, the American Left? We are starting to get the picture.

If one wants to bemoan a clear media bias . . . how is it that when a wife or mother goes "missing" it has the potential to make national news, but no so much for husbands. Missing children in the national news tend to be caucasian, or are they the only ones that disappear?

I have to agree with you. There are over 15,000 homicides each year. Only a hand full are reported, most in passing. If there is a child involved or the murder was exceptionally brutal or other wise unique it may get a bit more attention. I know that in this case we lost a judge, a nine year old, but I have not heard much about the other 4 who died. I have heard enough about the Congress woman to make me puke. Yes I am sympathetic to her plight but she is not unique in her suffering.

The same thing happened with the Holloway girl. Yes she was kidnapped and pardon me for being callous but so what? What made her more unique than the thousands, tens of thousands or how ever many kidnappings there were in the US last year?

What about the traffic deaths? two years ago in 2009 we lost over 30,000 people in traffic accidents. Where is the concern there?

I do not know who picks who is important enough to be on TV and who is not, but I think our priorities and value of human life is certainly jacked up.

When you think about the fact that between traffic accidents and homicides we loose somewhere close to 45,000 people every year and no one seems to be overly concerned about that, it does seem a bit confusing that we are so distraught over 6 more people added to that list.

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Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

Did you hear about the girl kidnapped in a Harlem hospital 23 years ago who was re-united with her parents this week. A great story.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/pop_up.asp?fpVname=NY_NYP&ref_pge=map&tfp_map=USA


A woman kidnapped as a baby from Harlem Hospital in 1987 -- abducted at 19 days old by a woman who had been lurking around the hospital for weeks wearing a nurse's uniform -- has been found alive and well...........

Some 23 years ago, Carlina White was rushed to the emergency room by her parents, who handed her to the woman they thought was a nurse, only to return later and be told that their daughter had vanished.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/alive_and_well_after_years_csPmfEkVeUXYgRUTbYbyLL

I did catch that story this mornng. I wonder how the national media covered it back in 1987.

I saw a story the other day about a couple what was told there grand child was going to die (being pulled of life support) so they need to fly out in order to say good bye. TSA was not sympathetic and it took for ever to get through security (save the TSA BS for another thread, we all know they suck). ONce he cleared security he hauled ass to the plane (he was already 12 min late) in his socks, belt in hand .... etc. When he got to the gate the South West pilot was at the door of the gate asking if he was such and such. Man answered that he was and the pilot proceeded to tell him that he was the pilot and he was sorry for their loss. He said this plan was not going anywhere without him and that he was not going anywhere with out them. He held the flight for 12 min and the grand parents got to say good bye to their grand-kid.

South West

There are lots of stories like these. Gives you a little faith in man kinds potential. That does not negate the fact that just counting car accidents and homicides, we loose as many people each year as we did in the entire Viet Nam war. That is pretty messed up in my opinion.

__________________
Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

I don't mourn for people/families that I don't know personally. Saves me a lot of unnecessary grief that way.

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Question Authority before it Questions you.