I do not question Sarah Palin's sincerity when she says that she and her husband pray for the victims of Saturday's horrible shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson. However, I think she needs to look in the mirror and think hard about whether her tone and language either directly or indirectly gives extremists the idea that violence is somehow ok. The map showing 20 Congressional districts in a rifle's crosshairs that Palin used leading up to the 2010 election remains on her Facebook page. Just as I believed when the ad was first published, this is appalling. There are so many ways to indicate political targets. Why use a gunsight as the marker if you are encouraging peaceful discourse and democracy in action?
Here's Palin's Facebook page as of about 12:05 AM Sunday - the crosshairs, including the ones on Rep. Giffords' district, are below the first long post. Read the comments for some very disturbing exchanges. We have a lot of work to do to make this a more perfect union. How about starting now?
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