My response to the Giffords shooting

I burst into tears watching TV. Just like that.

I was at the gym on Saturday when I saw the headlines flash across the TV
screens that a congresswoman had been killed in Tuscon, AZ. Gabrielle Giffords.

I stood there, frozen, and cried.

It was a very strange and unexpected reaction because I'm not usually a cry
baby. It takes a lot to push me over the edge, or reduce me to tears. But this
news broadcast did it.

I didn't cry because of the people that were senselessly killed - although that
is an absolute tragedy.

I cried because on Saturday my world changed. And so did America.

Maybe I'm overreacting in that last sentence, but I felt hopeless and violated.
Even though I'd never met Congresswoman Giffords, or anyone from Tuscon, I felt
a deep sense of personal loss.

The day we start shooting our elected officials and instilling fear and terror
upon our fellow citizens, is the day we join the ranks of countries we find
deplorable. We're engaged in two wars and we've lost thousands of soldiers in
the name of fighting terror and yet at home, we have something just as nasty
bubbling away beneath the surface.

A caustic political undercurrent that is dividing the nation, ideologically and
culturally.

While Congresswoman Giffords' shooter may have been off his rocker, the fact
remains that the growing intolerance against the left, or the right, is, well,
intolerable.

We can't allow different views or "values" to turn us into a nation of haters,
or worse, killers.

We can't allow the extreme views of some "politickers" to cloud our judgment,
and we mustn't allow those extreme voices to constantly taint the airwaves and
internet with misinformation and lies.

There's a great piece in Sunday's NYT " In the Shock of the Moment, the
Politicking Stops... Until It Doesn't." Please read it.

Politics is one nasty game, that's very clear. I'm glad to be in PR.. But when
we start killing in "the name of government," it's game over for everyone.

Did anyone else react like I did?