The Arizona Shootings

My post for the Huffington Post:

As I listen and watch, I have a feeling I know where the discussion will go.  Most will talk of our modern discourse.  Others will focus on the potential role of this or that policy.  Gun control will be mentioned as it always is when this happens.  But the trend emerging is our discourse.  I am the first to admit that things get out of hand today, and sometimes I can get caught up in the over-the-top labels and adjectives.  But I don't think it's just the discourse.  Like many things, that's probably a symptom, not the disease.  I think it's because social issues and political issues have taken an almost religious turn, and in a way that we think of when we think ill of religion.  They are what define us.  We hate because of who is on the wrong side.  We are divided.  Nothing trumps our political divisions.  In fact, everything simply becomes fodder to advance them.  I'm old enough to remember when people still set aside differences for a common cause.   Not today.  Not 9/11, not Oklahoma City, not Hurricane Katrina, not anything.  Nothing trumps what appears to be the most important thing in our nation - socio-political issues.  It's how we define who has stars on their bellies and who doesn't.  And perhaps due to other issues, we have no feeling of respect, regard, or patience for those who don't.  I don't know.  But I can't help but feel we will touch at the surface of the symptoms, but never go deeper as yet one more chance for self reflection comes and goes.