Wednesday, January 12, 2011

State Senate Candidate Denounces Arizona Shooting


Why is it that every politician, and wanna be politician, feels compelled to comment on the Arizona shooting?  Even candidates from states thousands of miles outside of Arizona feel the need to chime in.  On her campaign website state senate candidate(running in Virginia, not Arizona) Patricia Phillips denounced the shooting in forcful and I'd even say eloquent terms - Ted Sorensen couldn't have written anything better.  Phillips said, "Unlike other "democracies" such as India, Pakistan, The Philippines, or Indonesia, we don't often have political assassinations."  She also went on to say, "My prayers and sympathy are with the victims and families and I urge everyone to do the same."

Now I don’t disagree with anything Phillips said.  I just wonder why she felt the need to use her state senate  web site to send out her opinion, and to let us know that she was praying for the victims.  I guess it would be different if she said elect me to the State Senate and I will introduce this sets of bills to stop this from ever happening in Virginia. 

It seems that whenever there's a tragedy like this politicians always do one of two things.  Either in response to the tragedy they propose some nutty idea to stop the next tragedy, usually this involves taking away some more of our liberty, or they rush to a microphone or keyboard and tell us how sorry they are for the victims. 

I am not saying Phillips is trying to politicize the shooting, I just think we all ought to let the investigation take its course, and yes pray for the victims.

3 comments:

Nathan said...

It strikes me that Patricia has nailed the issues that you raise. Yes, she expressed sympathy for the victims and their families (imagine the firestorm of criticism any political figure would get if they simply addressed the policy aspects of this event); she condemned both the shooting (a given) and the opportunistic rush to judgment made by the political left; she puts this assassination attempt in perspective by looking at other countries; and most importantly, while others advocate surrendering rights (1st and 2nd amendments, anyone?) in the name of communal safety, she points out that our constitution is one reason why we don’t have more political violence like other countries.

The Virginia Gentleman said...

Hey Nathan,
Thanks for the comment. I appreciate your point of view, and your checking the site.

The Bulletproof Monk said...

Pretty much right there with Nathan.
I caught this at Common Sense...and bit my tongue in order to contemplate.