A Ridiculously Dangerous Idea

Today I read this letter in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette:


In the aftermath of the tragic shootings in Arizona, I’m now troubled by the denials of partial responsibility emanating from the right wingers. I heard Sarah Palin talking about not retreating, but reloading. She put sniper’s cross hairs on a map of Democrat-held congressional seats, one of which belongs to U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. I also heard Sharron Angle say that if the right-wingers didn’t win at the voting booth, there would also be a “Second Amendment remedy,” and a tea party candidate running against U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz of Florida said something about bullets if not ballots.


Fox News, and its employees Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, plus Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, have been demonizing those of us who think differently for several years. They call us “socialists and communists,” and tell their listeners that we are left-wing haters of America.


Now, a mentally confused individual from Arizona, whose writings tell of his anger at the government and its supposed disregard of the Constitution, has shot Mrs. Giffords and many others at her “meet and greet.” The Constitution talk comes straight from the Republicans and their Fox-promoted tea party.


I firmly believe that the shooter was influenced by this right-wing rhetoric. His writings prove it. Sure, he’s unstable, but these are the most easily influenced by hate speech. So, stop the gun talk; we’re all Americans, and I’m a disabled U.S. Navy and Army veteran.


ROBERT J. BOLDUC

Thanks to the Telegram and Gazette for publish this letter. It is very important that all of us read it and understand what the writer is really saying. Mr. Bolduc’s letter can be reduced to five words;

“Sarah Palin is a Witch!”

We saw this 1692 in Salem. We saw what people were willing to when they believe in magical boogie men. They will blame the innocent for imagined crimes. They will turn on their neighbors. They will believe in Spectral Evidence. They will pervert the Rule of Law. We know the tragic results from history.

In school we were taught what happened. We wondered how seeming normal people could have acted so stupidly. After class we prided ourselves that we are so much wiser now than they were then. I am sure we are not. I see no evidence that we have changed much in that few hundred years.

I have read many comments from well educated people from many sites on the internet. Some have demanded that Sarah Palin be sued for all her money because she is responsible that crime, and money is all she cares about. Others insist it is Sharron Angle forced the madman’s hand and she must go to prison for life. Many site the Evil Miasma that comes from the famous that Foxnusgunbekbilloralesehanityancoulterushlimbha monster as the cause of the crime. They demand that the monster be gagged and strangled with our shredded Constitution. They want it be made illegal for those scary others to say words that up set them. They have spread rivers of ink to argue that they are the victims of superhuman bullies that are able to kill with their words. The sound most like small children that complain that their playmates won’t play fair and let them win.

I have read these comments on the pages of our greatest newspapers and on the websites for all the major news organizations. It is an opinion that many Americans fervently believe. That so many people so passionately believe such an obviously ridiculous idea scares me. We know that ridiculous ideas have away of creating unthinking action. Ridiculous ideas have caused wars.

Mr. Bolduc is an American Patriot. He, by his own admission, has suffered for our nation. I salute his sacrifice which was made for all of us. His bravery and service to duty is far superior to my own. But what he has written in this letter is wrong. Dangerously, ridiculously wrong. I hope that he reconsiders what he has written and changes his opinion.