Leonard Pitts Jr.: The Knoxville Shooting: The Liberals Made Him Do It

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via CommonDreams:



Published on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by The Miami Herald
The Knoxville Shooting: The Liberals Made Him Do It
by Leonard Pitts Jr.



Had it not been liberals, it would have been something else. Let’s grant that from the beginning.

Broken people, after all, can always find some equally broken rationale for the carnage they cause. And the brokenness of 58-year-old Jim Adkisson can hardly be doubted after he walked into a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sunday and, according to police, shot eight people, killing two.

He might as well have said he did it because he didn’t like the color of the building, a black cat crossed his path or the voices in his head thought it a good idea. Except, he didn’t. Police say that, according to the four-page note he left, he went on the rampage because he couldn’t find a job — and because he hates gay people and liberals.

Even through the brokenness of the man, that reasoning resonates.

From the days the first President Bush branded it ”the L word” — i.e., the ideology that dare not speak its name — conservative politicians and media figures have been relentlessly effective in selling the idea that ”liberal” is the brand name for every wrong thing they see, every opinion they disagree with, every change they fear. They have not been hampered by excessive devotion to nuance.

As in the pundit who claims ”liberal” is a mental disorder. And the politician who says liberals are in league with Satan. And the preacher who said Sept. 11 was caused by liberals. And the other preacher who says liberals cause natural disasters.

It has reached the point where I no longer have the faintest idea what liberal — or, for that matter, conservative — even means. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/30/10695/