Arizona

There's something that's not being said. Granted I haven't read many blogs; granted I haven't listened a bit to Pacifica or read indymedia so this may be an entirely unoriginal thought. But there's something more here than the specific violent rhetoric and imagery of Palin and co. It's more than the "polarizing of debate" or the need for a middle ground. It's the militarization of a nation, still deep in the longest war in our history. And maybe this, too, is nothing new. Why should the militarizing of debate be surprising in a nation where endless war, in this century, is all we know? I think this when I think about school violence, about bullying; why are we surprised when young people follow what their elders hold as examples of problem-solving? When guns are the solution to international conflict (or simply a means of procuring resources), why should they not be the means to ending political debate? Or more to the point, when the military is an untouchable assumption, why should it not become the prevalent metaphor? And when it becomes the metaphor, why should it not be the solution?