From despair to where?

Last week I had one of the best media-induced highs in recent memory... No, not the Pack beating Philly! No, it was Steve Buckley's "coming out party" on WEEI. For those not in New England, Buckley is a known and respected sportswriter/commentator, and his column in last week's Herald prompted a fascinating four-hour conversation on sports-talk radio about the politics of coming out, gender and sports, etc. Amazing stuff, no kidding.

But by the weekend, all that feelgood got swept away with a phone call from my brother, saying that the congresswoman from Tucson had been shot--that a lot of people had been shot. Nils reminded me that Mom & Dad had volunteered for her campaign this past fall, that they'd met her at our neighborhood friends' house where we always do Thanksgiving and Christmas... That first day had a lot of phone calls checking in on folks, emails inquiring about possible family connections with those killed, etc. Awful. Just awful.

(Among other things, I learned that Congresswoman Giffords went to UHS--but I don't recall running across her there.)

And now that the initial shock is over (well, maybe--IS it over?), the killings have become major political fodder. I was AIMed by a student who wanted to blame Fox News et al, but that seemed too simple. Palin's "target map" speaks more as an overt representation of the overheated rhetoric than anything else I can point to tonight...but that's too easy, too.

This needs to be a real gut-check for all of us, folks. As a state, as a nation, as a global community: who are we becoming? Who do we want to become, and how do we get there?

I want to keep working this through for myself this week--and I'm particularly anxious to hear from AZ folks, to get a sense from them about the state of the state, from their personal perspectives.... Be in touch?