Where Invective Ends

I’m unpacking boxes at our new house, and finding pieces of this country’s soul, or so it seems after three days of what must only be called the Moving Morass. On Sunday I heard reports, gleaned through accidental Internet access, that Representative Giffords was doing very well, considering the trauma to her brain. And along with every blip of an update, I heard something else that made me want to weep or scream:

• Republican Congressmen declaring they’re going to arm themselves
• Democrat state representatives in Arizona tendering their resignations
• Everyone blaming Sarah Palin for the shooting, and her abysmal defense of her rhetoric
• The Phelps clan announcing they plan to protest the funerals of the victims

But even in the midst of some people’s insistence on perpetrating a shitstorm of hate and calamity, there was some sweet relief in the form of Daniel Hernandez, a chubby, gay, young Hispanic intern who’d only been on the job for five days, and whose quick thinking saved the Congresswoman’s life, in all likelihood. And the woman who grabbed the gun clip from the shooter, while scolding him like an angry grandmother, Patricia Maisch. Don’t piss off a woman who wears embroidered jeans shirts!

Of course we should all be prepared for weak-minded people to make this tragedy about themselves. Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and the rest of the leading edge of fear mongerers must be at least a little nervous about whether the end is in sight to their messaging campaigns. People at the National Rifle Association have very carefully constructed a narrative about freedom and liberty for gun ownership, but this belies the death and destruction to human life that guns have wreaked over centuries in this nation. And I can’t think but to point at the US Constitution, which lists “Life” at the head of the line, before “Liberty” and “Pursuit of Happiness.”

I’m glad some people are nervous, even as the rest of us attempt to get on with shifting the frame of debate to something approach reasonable. If anyone insists at this point that 30-round clips of ammunition are necessary to ensure liberty, or if there is no connection between gun rhetoric and gun violence, or that it is in any way imaginably okay to continue to “target” public figures or elected officials, then I will have grave concerns about their motives in this world. And I can only hope that what I know to be angry fringe sentiment will eventually return there. Because at some point, all of this will rebalance.

I’m hoping as I continue digging through our boxes, I’ll find some hope packed away that I’d forgotten about and can use again.