I am remembering Nixon's aide, Gordon Liddy telling Chuck Colson, White House Counsel that he was off to kill columnist Jack Anderson. Why? Because HR Halderman, POTUS’ Chief of Staff had in frustration said, referring to the columnist, "we have to get rid of this guy". No saint himself, Colson at least had the common sense to stop Liddy.
That was then; this is now. So, when do we begin realizing that words have consequences; that what some might see as over-reaching campaign rhetoric is seen by others as a "call to exercise second amendment rights". In a Florida congressional race this fall, we heard: "If ballots don't work we will use bullets!" In New York, a candidate for governor threatened a reporter that he would "take him out". These utterances are from candidates for high public office not some backyard argument and in the age of replicating news cycles, they are seen and re-seen on the cable outlets.
Even Pat Buchanan’s eloquent call to “Mount up and ride to the sound of the guns” is only meaningful when taken with the historic understanding that it is a historical reference to the Battle of Waterloo and not, as some might think, a call to arms. Thinking about that, maybe Buchanan was with Wellington and Blucher that day.
Thankfully, the vast majority of us ignore histrionic declarations like that and maybe even laugh them off but it only takes one who does not, one who takes the utterance seriously, or is deranged, or maybe, like my fellow Fordham alumnus, Liddy, is a true Machiavellian.
Our parents taught us: "Sticks and stones etc" but that lovely allegory is no longer applicable in this age of instant action and equally instant reaction. YouTube and FaceBook et al have changed the scene forever and words do cause harm as seen by recent cyber-bullying cases.
Putting the picture of a congresswoman’s district on a leaflet with gun sights around it is without a doubt First Amendment protected speech. But just because we have a constitutional right to do something does not mean we must or sometimes even should.
Civility must not be seen as archaic. The vitriol that we heard at Tea Party meetings this year was scary but the reality that very few of our political leaders spoke out against it was equally disheartening.Recent events in Arizona should press everyone: politicians and supporters, pundits and handlers, TV commentators and talk-radio personalities, even blog writers, all of us to tone back the rhetoric but I sadly doubt it will.
For that, shame on all of us.
