Sometimes I'm grateful to be so far away.

Thoughts and prayers are with Gabrielle
Giffords and other victims.

Last week my home state of Arizona, and the whole of the United States suffered a great tragedy.  

My head has had its moments of confusion and my heart its moments of pain.  My heart really hurts.  It hurts for those injured and killed and their families.  It hurts for the Tucson community that will forever have this scar.  It hurts for Arizona, which has been plagued with overwhelming hate, bigotry, and ignorance in more recent months.  It hurts for my country; for not living up its basic principle of civility and unity, particularly under distress.

Make no mistake.  The headlines have not stopped at our borders.  Many people here have tiptoed around the issue with me.  They gently ask me about what happened: have I heard... so sad... wasn't that your state...?  So far my only response has been to sigh and roll my eyes in a solemn acknowledgement (as I've come accustomed to doing with the year's national and international headlines coming from Arizona).  I don't know what to say or how to react, and have generally felt that way for months now with the current political climate.  This tragedy only makes it all the more real that we've crossed the line into completely despicable speech and behavior.

I agree, to a certain extent, with John Stewart who stated afterwards that one cannot point a finger at the vitriolic rhetoric as the cause of Saturday's shootings any more than heavy metal music is to blame for the Columbine shootings: crazy is crazy.  But hate is hate, and it shouldn't be tolerated in a civil society.  The  future is grim when hate (i.e. ignorance) permeates our thoughts, words, and actions towards our fellow citizens.   

And that's why I've been so grateful these past months, this year and last, to have lived far away from it all.  I've been able to discriminately watch tv and read the news, not being involuntarily subjected to the poisonous rhetoric that has infiltrated the print and airwaves.  Particularly last year, during the midterm elections, I couldn't have been more content not watching the tidal waves of negative campaign ads that tirelessly run for months leading up to November.

I would love to be optimistic and think that this event might change things, and we might be more humane in the way we treat and speak of each other.  But I'm not, and I don't think things will change, not yet at least.  I don't know what it will take, how many people need to be affected and hurt (physically, mentally, spiritually, etc) before things turn around and we begin to emphasize tolerance over ignorance, and love over hate.

For now, I'm considering staying overseas until after the 2012 presidential election.