Hate and Violence: Where left and right meet

When we discuss politics we often discuss it as if political views were a straight line from right to left (or left to right), and that everyone has a place on that line. In such an analogy the ends of that line are as far apart from each other as one could imagine. Therefore, when a series of tragic, politically motivated, shootings strikes our country in the way it has these past couple of weeks, those toward one side of the line or the other either try to blame the other side, keep score, or minimize their own role in promoting the extremism of their own side.

There have been three such shootings recently. The murder of Dr. George Tiller, provider of late-term abortions in Kansas, Pvt. William Long, who was standing outside of a Army recruiting station, and now Stephen John, a security guard at the National Holocaust Museum.

The first two of these incidents can be somewhat pigeon holed to the right and left extremes, but it is this most recent incident that shows how close in ideology the extreme left and right really are. The gunman at the museum was a blend of all of the crazy ideologies that come from both the left and the right. He was a white supremacist (right), hated George W. Bush (left), anti-government (right), appears to be anti Christian (left) and was clearly Anti-semitic (a feature of both extremes). Ultimately he used violence as his tool, a tool that the murderers of both Dr. Tiller and Pvt. Long had no problem using either.

See this article in the Washington Post for a complete discussion of the vairiety of issues of the Museum shooter (I am intentionally not using the assailants' names).

What this shows to me is that the political spectrum is not a line, but rather a circle, wherein it eventually comes back on itself. One could consider the edges of the mainstream (think O'Reilly and Olberman) as the right and left most parts of the circle. Someone like Democrat turned Republican turned Democrat Sen. Arlen Spector, might be at the top of the circle, and then the three terrorists that we have recently experience are at the bottom of the circle, perhaps leaning toward one side or another, but all indoctrinated so much into the ideology of hate for those who are different, that there is no real difference here between any of the three.

Extremism in all its forms is the one intolerance that a free nation must have as it logically leads to violence. We must be cognizant of the messages that the "mainstream" right and left are sending as well, as we see how those messages get twisted by those with sick and hate-filled minds (example: Calling Dr. Tiller, "Tiller the Baby Killer" might get ratings, but has the subtle suggestion that he must be stopped by whatever means - no matter if the person using that phrase might want to use legal means to stop him).

Ultimately all three of these murders are acts of terrorism. Dr. Tiller's murderer wanted to send a message that those who perform abortions are in danger. Pvt. Long's murderer wanted to send a message that our soldiers are in danger, even here, and Mr. John's murderer was trying to send a message to all Jews and Jewish sympathizers that they are not safe.

Instead of trying to blame each other for these acts of violence, we need to look at our own words and our own actions to try to unite against such acts.