Alright, I wanted to wait a while before I took a look at this topic. As most of you know, I went to school in Tucson (along with the bulk of my readers). Many friends and colleagues of mine grew up there, still call it home, or at the least have very fond memories of the place. Some of them even worked for Congresswoman Giffords over the past few years. Needless to say, this one hit pretty close to home for me.Right from the get-go a big part of me wanted to see how people reacted. That same part of me is what has kept me from bringing this up any earlier; The fiery reactions, vitriol, and political saber-rattling were all things that I wanted to steer clear of when tackling such an emotional current event.
I am not going to rehash events, what I am going to do is look at the media coverage, the twitter/facebook reaction, and the general mood of people near and far in the hangover of the tragedy. I will say this. I hope Loughner gets whats coming. Read between the lines, and draw whatever conclusions you may, but I want justice.
The knee jerk reactions were not surprising, I would prefer to use the term disappointing. Immediately, moments after shots had been fired, the facebook status updates and tweets coming from all over the world provided an array of predictable finger-pointing, taunting, and incoherent ranting. It seemed that some members of the political spectrum were taking advantage of the state of Arizona being the epicenter of a big, evil Right Wing-fueled disaster. Here's a tip folks: Nothing is going to get done in this country unless the blame game ends. There is a pretty good chance that you and I disagree, possibly on every subject imaginable. It takes a lot for me to get offended, but if somebody I don't see eye to eye with is going to insist that my beliefs are the root of all evil, I am probably not so apt to compromise with said person. Meet in the middle, accept dialogue, and create solutions. That goes for righties too. As much as hipsters and Alec Baldwin suck, they really aren't the bane of civilization. Lets pull our heads out and fix things. (And, for the record, this needs to happen regardless; I can't emphasize enough how much I don't want this incident to become some sort of martyr or symbol. It shouldn't take disasters to solve problems.)
What actually disgusted me was the media's handling of January 8th. First it was the reports that Gabby had died. Does anyone confirm anything anymore? One of the biggest reasons why I dropped out of journalism was an underlying emphasis on finishing first, rather than writing the best story. Editors and managers spend a lot more time hustling writers, scurrying over details, and spitting things out on the air in order to 'win' than to make a well crafted, finished product. Increased competition often is criticized for diluting the talent pool; take a look at Major League pitching, and you have a compelling argument for that hypothesis. I guess it is just disheartening to me that the Walter Cronkite's don't really come around anymore. The more I watch the major news networks, the more I long for real, hard hitting, honest, wholesome reporting.
Ultimately, the final thing I would like to touch on, is the framing of Arizona as some racist, lawless, cowboy and Indian shootout. We have real problems, sure, but I don't think that's exclusive to my adopted state; most of my Midwestern readers would jump at the chance to live out here. I read a lot of things depicting Tucson as a city with a firm white/hispanic dividing line, like there was a major cultural clash and it was some sort of Balochistan. Look, I'm sure some parts of town are whiter than others, but what city in the country isn't like that? Any city with a million people is going to have a city core, and suburbs, and if you don't think those places (as well as the type of personality that resides in one quarter or another) are different from one another you are out of your mind. This is nothing new, and grasping at thin air. I would say that all factions of Tucson blend together pretty organically (the nonexistent freeway system notwithstanding) and the de facto segregation isn't nearly as pronounced as places like Detroit, Hartford, Boston, or any host of other cities nationwide. Those of us out here live in a great state, with nice people, plenty of culture, oh and did I mention that we don't have to wear gloves to work???
If you get anything out of my opinions, take this: Do your homework. Jumping to conclusions is unhealthy and doesn't do anything besides incite people's insecurities, and cause nasty ideological arguments. (People believe what they believe by the way. CHILL OUT) Unless your a creep that likes to stir the pot, take time to formulate opinions, and things will get much more civil, both in Washington and out here in the 'wild west'.
