Knoxville shootings are a symptom of our culture 

Good Day, Mr. Moredock and All.

If Rush Limbaugh et al. have neglected to specifically urge violence upon the ranks of "L-Worders", the "drive-by media", and other assorted non-travelers, it is only because they understand clearly that it is wholly unnecessary. These Fear Pimps merely sound the clarion call against illegals, and godless heathen socialists, and every other marginalized group who are "really" responsible for the disenfranchisement of the Great American Middle Class, and let a reservoir of frustration and anger (some of it justified, if horribly misdirected) do the rest. They accuse others of Class Warfare while being the largest panderers of it in the field. Because they appeal to the lesser demons of our nature, they make us less than we might be, and all in the name of money. The saddest part is the sure knowledge that they laugh at their followers all the way to the bank.

Having made this observation, I would be remiss if I did not take the Zealots across the aisle to task; hate-mongering is, alas, not a franchise held exclusively by the Fear Pimps on the Right. They meet their Leftward fear-baiting comrades around on the back side of the curve. Every message spewed forth by partisans in each camp diminishes us as a nation, and takes us further away from the communal exercise in compromise and co-existance envisioned by the wisest of our Founders.

Gilbert Head,
Athens, GA

Mr. Moredock, invoking a “culture of hate” seems a standard tactic employed by liberals to discredit conservative talk show hosts. This tactic disappoints me, for to criticize is not to hate.

Being a frequent listener of Sean Hannity, if not a daily listener, I have never heard Mr. Hannity direct hatred against liberals. He and perhaps others blame liberal exponents in the judicial system for the propagation of crime (one example), because they seem consumed with pity for the poor criminals. As my mother from S.C. used to say: who feels sorry anymore for their poor victims? Mr. Hannity does blame liberals of both parties for the cancerous hypertrophy of inefficient and wasteful Big Government, for the forceful misappropriation of private property, and for otherwise eroding civil rights of individual citizens in favor of a socialist liberal “body politic.”

Actually I have witnessed Mr. Hannity indulge in one lamentable behavior on the air. When a caller urges calmly and rationally that Israel may be mistreating Palestinian Arabs he rushes to implicate his caller as an “anti-Semite” and says things like, “Get off the phone, you big dope!” But Arabs are Semites, too, and not all are terrorists. And criticizing Israeli national or local politics is not tantamount to herding Hebrews into liquidation camps. This topic is relevant to the integrity of U.S. journalism today, and a worthy topic for discussion.

We have a local Jewish columnist here who writes that there is on earth no Jewish propaganda machine like that in the U.S. He acknowledges that there are plenty of American Jews who disagree with many ways Israel operates; nevertheless, topics which are fair game in the Israeli press (e.g., debating Palestinian issues in criticism of Israeli policies) cannot be publicized here in America without their author being publicly tarred and feathered with swastikas. Therefore I hope Mr. Hannity’s behavior arises out of ignorance, and not out of hate. The other possibility: such behavior arises out of fear: the possibility that criticism of Israel (as a Jewish state?) is taboo in American national media, presumably because American journalists are best advised to know where and whence their bread is buttered. Alas! This last possibility is too sinister to entertain.

'Personal responsibility' is one of the most galling euphemisms to come out of the conservative movement ever. To really understand the phrase, you have to insert the omitted word 'your' -- as in 'its YOUR personal responsibility.' Having spoken this magic phrase, a conservative can then turn his back on poverty, injustice, corruption, etc. in the firm belief that such a thing could never happen to him, or anyone he knows.

It's so easy to just place blame and not regard the shooter, or his victims as people. As one person said to me after Kip Kinkle shot up a meeting of a religious group in his school,

"Well, at least they was all prayed up"

The real tragedy here is not (so much) that this shooting happened. It's that it -keeps- happening, over and over, from Columbine to Virginia Tech. Saying that this is just the fault of a crazy shooter is an admission, not only that this kind of thing is inevitable, but that these are acceptable losses.

Some folks are so afraid of big government that they'd rather leave mental health in the hands of the pharmaceutical companies -- whose primary motivation is profit. And so the fact that religion and criminal sanctions have continually failed to prevent these massacres seems to be immaterial. As a society, we have more important issues to which we'd rather devote our attention and resources.

Like building a huge bloated military so we can go to other countries and shoot people.

Will, normally I glance at your column just to see what kind of self-loathing, hand wringing one-sided, nonsense you have written. I laugh, and move on. Really Will, most of the time all you do is preach to the choir.
This time you are so far over the top as to be nothing short of an elitist and bigoted rant.

In typical leftist, non-thinking fashion you blame everyone for this evil and cowardly act except the one person who was responsible. (Jim Adkisson)
You blamed everyone from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hanity, and Pat Robertson and even Conservative Christians for this. And by the way…What do you have against Truck Drivers?
As a Conservative I will grant you that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hanity are partisans for the Republican party but I have NEVER heard them advocate violence or hate of anyone.
Their crime in your eyes is that they disagree with you and for you that is enough to call it hate.

Does it occur to you that by blaming entire groups of people for this evil act that you are guilty of the very bigoted and hate-filled thinking that you accuse them of?
Does it?

You claim that it is inconceivable that a Unitarian is capable of committing such a crime.
You honestly believe that Unitarians do not commit violent crime?
Do you realize how elitist that is?
Do you realize that you as a Unitarian have written a column who's entire point is to sponsor hatred of Conservative Christians?

You honestly believe that only Conservative Christians commit violent crime?
Do you realize how bigoted and how hate filled that thought is?
What you are engaging in Sir is called “The big lie”

The facts are that the evil and cowardly act that Jim Adkisson committed was done so as an attempt to commit suicide. He used his hatred of liberals as a means to justify his actions. It wasn’t because he was poor, it wasn’t because he was a truck driver, it wasn’t because he listened to Limbaugh or Hanity, or Pat Robertson. Jim Adkisson did this because he is an EVIL coward.
Because he is a coward, it never occurred to him that a courageous act would stop him from fully carrying out his plan.
This evil was not committed by Rush Limbaugh, not Sean Hanity, the gun manufacturer or American Society, nor did they inspire it, and you are nothing more than a partisan for suggesting it.
Yes Sir, you are a partisan.
What else would you call a man who would take such a tragic event as this and turn it to make a political point?
This act was committed by one man. One, cowardly, evil, hate-filled man with a gun who wanted to end his life, and rather than put the barrel of the gun in his mouth he intended to make the police kill him.
The reason you arrive at such an easy conclusion as to blame this evil on a group agenda is because the existence of evil is so frightening to you that you lie and take comfort in a convenient scape-goat.
For you this makes the whole thing easy, comforting, expainable and...Wrong.

Unitarians as a group have been brave and courageous by taking righteous stands against the unjust acts people, society and Governments. The Unitarians in this church were no different by taking their lives in their hands and tackling and disarming Jim Adkisson.
You dishonor them by taking the stand you have.

"Yet, even in this violent tradition, in this violent country, it is inconceivable that a Unitarian would storm into a conservative Christian church and open fire. Such behavior is the exclusive province of the right-wing. And its leaders and spokesmen don't seem the least bit ashamed of that fact."


Are you really insenuating that conservatives don't find these acts as dispicable as you do? This article is one of the most clear examples of hate-mongering and spreading ignorance. You, Mr. Moredock, are a true hypocrite. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the actual definition of the word prejudice, you know just for shits and giggles.

Prejudice: unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, esp. of a hostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group.

You sir may not be holding a 12-guage but your words are every bit as damaging as the exact public figures that this article denounces. If there is one thing we can all agree on its that there are idiots and radicals in every area of the broad political spectrum. It is your outdated type of thinking that is destroying this country and halting progress, keeping this country in a perpetual stalemate of left and right.

The true problem with this country is that everyone wants to point the finger somewhere else. We have lost the sense of personal accountability. If you want to blame someone, blame the shooter, not society, not conservatism or liberalism. By your tired standards we should blame Islam for terrorism, gun makers for murders, bars for DUIs, and pencils for misspelled words. Blaming anyone but the shooter is a cop-out. It is people who perpetuate these misconceptions and continually try to point the finger that are destroying the moral fabric of America and polluting our minds with ignorance. You are every bit as terrible as the media figures you are trying to speak out against. The truth remains that the vast majority of American citizens are tired of the political process and tired of partisanship. Lord knows that I'm one of them, but you don't see me running into churches and killing people. This article shows nothing but a lack of judgement and reason on your behalf.

Since you proclaim yourself as a fan of Jefferson, I found these quotes interesting.

"The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the tracts which favor that theory."
Thomas Jefferson

"It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong."
Thomas Jefferson

"I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others."
Thomas Jefferson