The WLA | The World's Leading Authority

This is what happens when you let the fringe become the center.

The recent shooting of Gabrielle Giffords (along with 19 other people), has sent shudders across America and its political landscape. In what can only be described as a rampage, Jared Loughner, a 22 year-old, first shot Giffords in the back of the head at point blank range before proceeding to open fire on the crowd gathered around her. He would eventually be subdued by bystanders and now awaits his fate.

In our society, such savagery is often categorized with words like “insane” and “inhuman.” Linguistically, it offers us the ability to unlink ourselves from the individual, comforting us, since we ourselves are, of course, merely sane and human.

Unfortunately, this act was both sane and human, a fact we need to face up to. Insane is not legally purchasing a gun, writing a confession letter, deliberately targeting and walking up to your intended target, pulling the trigger at point blank range, and proceeding to shoot her staff and followers. Inhuman is not living, breathing, being. To portray the shooter as a lunatic space alien is imprudent and ignorant; he was very much like you and me.

But surely, then, there must be some difference between him and us, right? After all, he was the one with his finger on the trigger.

Yes, this is true. But how did that finger get there in the first place? And why?

I don’t pretend to know the whole answer. However, this much I do know: the words, images, and rhetoric used in the recent election cycle, and the debate on health care that preceded it, were some of our country’s most toxic. Emerging from this sludge was the Tea Party, a group of loosely connected individuals with a catchy name, made up of a few intelligent people upset with our current state of affairs and a few more indignant, anti-government malcontents. Those of the “Get a job, morans!” and “Keep your government hands off my Medicare” lot.

Now, it’s not as if these political fringe dwellers came from nowhere. They’ve been around as long as there’s been reason to complain, they’ve just never been given a voice.

Enter Sarah Palin. The milfy, failed VP turned demagogue, took these good people under her arm like the Grizzly Mama she is. Using the down-home, folksy nonsense that made her so popular, she pretended that she cared about them, that their opinions weren’t crazy like that liberal MSM said. That it was okay to bring a military assault rifle to an Obama speech. That if you’re upset, you can vote not just with your ballot, but with your finger.

Your trigger finger.

Yes, at the time, when Palin released her controversial map of “targeted” Democrats who voted for the health care bill, we all laughed and said, “Oh, Sarah, there you go again.”

Guess who was included in that list? Gabrielle Giffords. How funny do you think Palin’s phrase, “Don’t retreat – RELOAD!” sounds now?

Talk about loaded rhetoric; perfect ammunition for a young man violently discontent with his government, in a state (Arizona) where buying a gun is as easy as buying bread, where you can legally carry a gun into a bar and to a school.

To be fair, it’s true that that both sides of the aisle, left and right, liberal and conservative, have their share of constituents with extreme views. In fact, one issue the liberals have had recently is that they’ve managed to chase all the most left-leaning members out of their party, and as such have become a disillusioned mass, believing in a lot but caring about very little.

The real problem, though, is that the conservative party has done no such thing. Beginning four years ago, with Barack Obama’s candidacy, neo-conservatives like Palin, Limbaugh, Beck, and others, began embracing their party’s fringe. Seeing an opportunity to capture passionate voters, they began fanning the flames of “populist rhetoric,” code for “angry uprising.” And as wildfire is wont to do, it spread. This created a dangerous feedback loop, where the puppet masters became ever more controlled by their puppets. The election of so many non-traditional politicians a few months ago was merely the beginning of the right’s political gymnastics, bending the edges of their party back to center.

In a remarkably short period, the lunatics had taken over the asylum, only this time, they were handed the keys. Republicans abdicated all responsibility, choosing instead to ride their fiery bronco to electoral victory. Democrats, on the other hand, merely stood by, naively hoping that the little Tea Party mosquitoes would just find someone else to bother.

And oh, how the news media ate it up! By giving the movement such coverage, we legitimized the illegitimate. Every one loves a horse race, right, CNN? Who’s your money on now?

Yes, James Loughner did pull the trigger. No one here is making excuses for that. However, the fault isn’t solely his. We all are to blame, we all played a role. Health care, the tent pole upon which the whole debate hung, is not a battle. Politics is not a war. Not every disagreement involves one party “lashing out” or another “getting revenge.” Our language has become so sensationalized that we’ve left ourselves no room to breathe.

More tempered word choice isn’t going to bring back the dead, nor will it make up for the misdeeds of others. But by realizing that battle cries and rallying points are best left on an actual battlefield, perhaps we can take a step forward in the way we treat each other, and our country.

But what do I know? I’m just a moran.

Do you? Do you even care? If this title didn’t make you look twice, why not?

I’ll be the first to admit I’m a grammar nazi/prick/know-it-all. If I weren’t me, I’d probably want to punch me in the face sometimes. Thankfully my sense of self-preservation is developed enough to prevent this from happening too often, but sometimes you just have to risk it.

Okay. Are you paying attention? “Your and you’re” are not the same, nor are they interchangeable. I know you know this. I’m the WLA. I also know that if you’re reading this, you have learned the basic skill of literacy. You have been given an incredible tool that a lot of the world has not, yet you wield it with such carelessness. Why?

Most likely indifference, which is frankly more frustrating and stupid than, well, stupidity. Why have we devolved into not caring about our language? Do we not realize that it’s an extension of ourselves? When you write on someone’s wall, “Hey I think your really cute,” you don’t look charming, you look foolish. You wouldn’t greet a date with chocolate sauce on your face and bits of broccoli stuck in between your teeth, right? Do you see where I’m going here? (And why are you eating chocolate and broccoli at the same time?)

We’ve become so carelessly conversational now that I’m worried we’re already in too deep. I’m not saying everyone needs to memorize their grammar manual, in fact I’d be worried for you if you did, for entirely different reasons. But what I am saying is that when we stop caring about the most basic and fundamental way humans interact with each other, what have we become? Are we happy with that?

Your answer may very well be yes. It may very well be, “Hey, WLA, chill the F out. We’ve got bigger problems than this.” And this is true, the fabric of the world will not be unwoven by misplaced apostrophes. But think of it this way: at least it’s something we can control. Wars, nuclear proliferation, species extinction, economic depression, those are all problems that individually we can do very little about. So why not take ownership of your own mind, and at least re-read that last sentence you wrote?

Also, when did correcting people become so uncool? If I walked out of the house with a stain on my shirt, I’d expect you to tell me about it. I wouldn’t argue that I was being rebellious or carefree, I’d go back in and change my shirt. I wouldn’t think less of you for it, I’d think more. I’d be grateful. But correct a friend when they write, “Hey I think you left you’re purse at my apartment” at your own risk. I just don’t get it.

Unfortunately, majority often rules, and I seem to be in the minority. But I’m okay with that, really. Because I know I’m right, and I’ll take being right over being wrong any day of the week. Well, with the exception of weekend evenings…because even the WLA’s not an idiot.