He Used the Wrong Box

There's an old joke about politics in the United States of America. "There are four boxes to be used in the defense of freedom: Soap. Ballot. Jury. Ammo. Use in that order." Normally, this is a pretty funny little joke.

Yesterday, someone forgot the order.

It wasn't funny.

I hadn't expected my second blog post to be about something serious, but I'd feel remiss if I didn't cover this. I'd rather be humorous, or educational, or preferably both. Yet I sit here and think that the best thing, really, is to write about what's important. Right now, I can't think of anything more important to write about.

Reports are still conflicting about the shooting that took place yesterday -- Saturday the 8th, January, 2011 -- just outside Tuscon, Arizona. Some people have different numbers for who was hurt in the shooting. We all know, now, about U. S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head and, despite previous reports to the contrary, is recovering at University Medical Center in Tuscon. From the reports we're getting of this woman (whom I never heard of before this shooting and rather regret that fact, as she sounds like a politician I can actually stand), I am sure she'd want to make this tired old joke, and so I will for her: "The reports of my death were greatly exaggerated."

Unfortunately, not everyone was so lucky.

Chief Judge John Roll, of the U. S. District Court of Arizona, did not survive being shot. Neither did a nine-year-old girl named Christina Taylor Green or four other people. More than a dozen more were wounded, four of them still in critical condition.

The gunman was Jared Loughner (or possibly Laughner, the news reports' spelling differs), who is a 22-year-old resident of Tuscon, with a short record that includes drugs; he apparently had some time in the U. S. Army, but was rejected as "unqualified." His motives remain unclear according to authorities, and a detailed investigation involving the Pima County Sheriff's Department (which has jurisdiction), the Tuscon Police Department, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the FBI, and the Capitol Police is ongoing.

One thing I'm leaving out is the word "alleged." I rather dislike the term when it comes to a crime like this. Despite the fact that the police are looking for an accomplice, it seems fairly obvious that Loughner was involved. It was certainly obvious to the people -- simple, ordinary citizens who leaped into action -- who took him down before police arrived on the scene. These eyewitnesses, some of them definite heroes, all seem to agree that Loughner shot Rep. Giffords first before moving on to the judge and the crowd itself.

There's another thing I'm leaving out: politics. Have you noticed that I didn't mention which political party Giffords belongs to? That's because it's not necessary. Not now, at least. I'll leave the politicizing up to the media outlets on both sides of the aisle who have already started looking for ways to blame their enemies. They're so good at that. Who am I to think I can do better? Politics almost certainly did play a role in this tragedy, but there's time to hash that out later.

Lots of time. Time that some people will never share with us.

Instead, I want to focus on the people involved. My prayers go out to everyone touched by this event, starting with Christina, and the parents of this nine-year-old girl who now have to bury their daughter. I find myself wanting to know about her. I know who Giffords is. I know who Roll was. I don't know about the others. I don't know who they were. And I don't know who Christina would have been, had Loughner not set out one Saturday morning with a gun in his hand and murder in his heart.

And let's also take a closer look at what Loughner did. Not who he is, but what he did. We're so quick to label this sort of crime as the product of a deranged mind. I can't tell you how many times I've heard and read that word in the reports since the attack; deranged, or disturbed, or some other "safe" term that boils down to mental illness. Because, you see, obviously only the insane could commit such an attack. I've heard this with James Lee, the bomber at the Discovery Channel Building in Silver Spring, Maryland, three miles from where I sit right now. I've heard this with Major Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter. I've heard it with Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter. Lately, these seem to be the terms of choice about Hitler and other tyrants of history. Maybe they were all insane, but that's no excuse to forget or ignore another important word to describe this act, and the choice that lay behind it.

Evil.

Evil exists, my friends. Never forget that. To ignore it, to simply dismiss it as the product of mental illness, is to ignore free choice and excuse any wrongful behavior. It also precludes any isolated event; one can make a wrong choice that is evil, and later recognize the fact, recant the act, and work to make amends. The mentally ill cannot have that same self-reflection. They are not responsible. They cannot be blamed. They can only be excused. Their evil becomes coddled, uncorrected, allowed to grow and spread. Some who do evil are insane. Some who are insane do evil. The two, however, do not go hand in hand.

Evil is about choice. Choices were made at Auschwitz, at Columbine, at Ford's Theater in DC, at Dealey Plaza in Dallas. A choice was also made in a Safeway parking lot in Casas Adobes, AZ, at 10 AM yesterday.

Sometimes, evil is just evil. Never be afraid to say it.

Never let its victims' cries become silenced by fear of a word.

Phyllis Scheck, 79 years old.

Dorothy Murray, 76 years old. Married 64 years; mother, grandmother, great-grandmother.

Dorwin Stoddard, 76 years old. Pastor.

John Roll, 63 years old. Judge, husband, father, grandfather.

Gabriel Zimmerman, 30 years old. Congressional staffer, engaged to be married.

Christina Taylor Greene, 9 years old. Fascinated by politics and the only girl on the baseball team. Born on September 11th, 2001. Click here to know more about Christina.

Please take a moment. Don't dismiss this event as anything other than evil. Lay blame later to your heart's content; but for now just remember these names. We'll forget them soon enough. The country will move on. We'll all move on to other things. But when something jogs your memory, remember that evil exists. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away.

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EDIT: A friend of mine who read this post gave me the above link for Christina Greene. Thank you, Alicia.