Words that heal, rather than words that wound

I find myself withdrawing a bit lately from some of my favorite blog-o-haunts, and the assassination attempt on Representative Giffords last week that left five people dead set off reactions that really reinforced some of my feelings of distance from various online communities.

Within the first hours of the news I admit I engaged in finger pointing. I felt the caustic media tone from the Becks to the Angles and Palins had once again manifested in a deadly outburst.

And I suppose I still do.........

...and rather than seeing less of that, I've been seeing more suddenly. I've seen flair-ups of that all over, as people come out of the woodwork in comment threads to scream at one another that it's liberals' fault, that it's conservatives' fault, back and forth and back and forth.

There's a rash of ass covering, coming up with reasons to blame ideologies, sanctimony about dire predictions having been confirmed, trails leading from statements to violence, dredging up old grievances, wrongs, any mention of this or that pulled from the ground to conflate equivalencies or paint individuals or ideas or representatives as vile, or some even deserving of what they got.

Screaming and screaming and screaming and in the middle of it there were few actual just plain old calls for civility.

If this sort of activity is what it takes to choose a side and promote what I feel is best for America, I guess I'm not interested. I guess I don't care who started the vitriol. I only care who ends it.

I have a vision for my country. I want people who live here to prosper and lead full, productive lives and be all they can. And that's what I want. And I am good friends with people and have family members with people on all ends of the political spectrum. And I LIKE them. I AGREE with them on so many things. I find them caring, and funny, and fun to be around. And they're GOOD people. And they're SMART people. And they're REASONABLE people. I find insults to groups they belong to to be uncomfortable.

I'm very happy with our leadership today. I'm very proud of the Obama administration keeping its cool and acting the part of the voice of reason.

...it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds...

Please.

More of that.