Putting Arizona in context

We shouldn't be surprised by what happened in Arizona.

• We don't treat mental illness.
• We make guns astoundingly easy to purchase.
• We legitimize hate speech and profound historical ignorance and distortion by reporting it just like any other news content.
• It would be shocking if violence like this didn't happen.
• And it would be shocking if this were the end of it.
• i.e, We went through this many times over in the 1960s -- and learned what? Not a thing. Not a thing. 

I again am reminded of my favorite curtain line in my dramatic work: "What the people expect, they deserve. What they deserve, they get. Always."

Until we raise our expectations and demand, DEMAND, change, there will be no lessening of violence in our land.