Homer'sWorld

People stood along the side of the road and waved at the police officers, the ambulance, and the motorcycle escort. Some held up signs wishing her well. I had to pull out a tissue and wipe tears that suddenly appeared. Why am I so sentimental at times?

I guess I am a soft-hearted man.

Nothing good has come of this horrible tragedy in Tucson. There is no real discussion on ways to stop this sort of thing happening again. State Senator Jake Harper is still pushing his new legislation allowing guns to be carried on college campuses. The local tea party leader blamed Ms. Giffords for being shot. The governor of Arizona has announced that 280,000 people will be thrown off Medicaid, I am sure some of those people will have mental problems that could be ameliorated through counseling and medication. The sale of semi-automatic handguns grew after the shooting. And so on.

Even suggesting that gun control laws should be re-examined is criticized. A man who once worked for my company had a letter published in the Arizona Daily Star, stating that "can't the gun-control advocates please take a step back and not use this event as a platform to voice their uninformed comments regarding gun control?" I responded by asking when would be a good time to comment: Is it during months that start with Q? When Venus and Uranus are in direct alignment? The 26th century? It is never a good time to speak up about gun-control if you are one of the uninformed anti-gun-control people. His response was basically what I suggested- never.