On Obama and Palin

On Jan. 12, President Obama delivered a great, powerful, consoling, healing speech at the memorial service to the victims of the Tucson tragedy. I did not vote for the president and will probably not vote for him in 2012. I think that it is important for me to publicly recognize this wonderful speech. He covered two important items: the tragedy and civil political discourse.

President Obama paid tribute to the victims and the heroes of this terrible and heinous event and consoled the families and friends of the victims. And of course, he, as we all do, prayed for full recovery of the surviving victims. He made all of us roar with joy when he mentioned that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes for the first time.

He did not stop there. President Obama covered the vicious political finger-pointing following the incident. He recognized that the true villain is the madman who committed the shootings. He spoke like a statesman and not a politician when he asked the country to start “talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”

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It is time for all of us to listen to our president. It is disheartening that members of his own party are not heeding his advice regarding civil discourse.

One does not have to be a fan of Sarah Palin to realize that she was falsely and viciously libeled after the Tucson tragedy. There is no evidence or proof that her words affected the actions of a madman. Palin was libeled again when she correctly used the phrase “blood libel” to defend herself. No person or group owns that phrase. Her treatment is simply a case of blind, vicious hate and certainly a violation of any civil discourse.