I did watch the news shows last Sunday. For the most part, they were irrelevant for the moment, because they were filmed on Friday, before the Tucson shooting. Of the shows I saw, only Meet the Press was live on Sunday and able to cover it. The event was still really fresh on Sunday though, and Meet the Press's discussion. And part of Meet the Press was a pre-recorded interview with Harry Reid. I think Harry Reid is ok, but he's been in DC so long, he doesn't have much of an idea how it is for us lower income people. But I'm glad that he is re-elected over his opponent, who had some pretty far out ideas. He's got a tough job ahead of him though. I guess the best he can hope for is to extinguish some of the fireballs that come out of the republican controlled house. There's no filibuster there - it's straight majority rules - and the republicans have the majority. And I think Reid can be counted on to be competent enough to do just that.

The discussion about the Tucson shooting was pretty reserved and cautious. Since that time, all hell has broken loose as the video clip of shot congresswoman Gifford last summer responding with concern and some fear to being literally targeted by a bulls eye on Sarah Palin's PAC's website has played over and over. Palin is livid. Well, the fact is that under these circumstances, she has a black eye and a big one. All the Glen Bekcs and Rash Lumbaugh's of the world can rant and rave all they want. Most people think that what Palin did went too far, and that it probably contributed to the obviously insane guy that did the Tucson shooting's state of mind.

But Palin shouldn't be too outraged. I saw clips of her at the time in response to the concerns about her map and she was saying that it wasn't about being violent. She's lucky she said that - that's about all she has. But, we always said when I was growing up that actions speak louder than words. That's why she is under such scrutiny right now.

What I'm concerned about is that the mainstream media, with its cumbersome power, and some in politics that like to take advantage of such situations, will create a climate in the US where it becomes a bad thing to criticize any public official. That would be a disaster, and I hope that the citizens of the US don't fall for that one. That's an old game that does anything it can to keep the attention away from what is going on.

Of course, the saddest thing of all is that we lost this exceptional 9 year old girl. She may have been the one with the ideas to actually lead us out of our problems successfully. We'll never know. We must do better at protecting our exceptional children. We simply cannot afford to lose them.

Of course we all face death at every moment. But it shouldn't be randomly dealt out with pain like that, just because an individual feels frustrated. But we can try to improve our education, our compassion, and our vision so that members of our society don't fall into such despair that turns to anger that turns to rage that turns to violence. We have a right to live in peace, and if everyone exercised that right, there would be peace everywhere.