The Mentally Ill Among Us

Okay, maybe it isn’t fair to blame the Tucson shootings on Sarah Palin’s cross-hairs map.  Or the weapons-and-combat imagery in the campaign ads of Jesse Kelly, who tried to unseat Gabrielle Giffords in last year’s Congressional election.

Don’t get me wrong. I deplore the hateful rhetoric, the name-calling, the demonizing of anyone who sees things differently, that dominates our politics today. We could all stand to tone it down. But I’m not sure it would have made a difference in this case.