Knoxville, Townhall & Garrett

I'm not sure if anybody else felt awful reading the motives behind the shooter at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. Whatever illness the man is suffering from, he says he targeted the church because they were liberal, particularly their views on women and gays.

Back in June of last year, I pointed out that Representative Scott Garrett was posting over at Townhall.com. At around the same time he began posting, Townhall was playing host to a twenty one part fantasy about killing liberals and RINOs. Despite Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives calling for it to be removed, I checked and it's still there as of this writing.

It never sat well with me after Columbine that people targeted various performers as being to blame for the tragedy; and I'm in no way placing any blame on Garrett or Townhall.

What I am saying is that the fantasy on should be taken down.

Townhall isn't some little obscure corner of the Internet; it's one of the largest conservative sites out there. With that comes a certain amount of social responsibility. Profiting by playing host to a series advocating the death of politicians, judges, TV personalities, and individuals of various political beliefs falls into the category of abdication of that social responsibility.

Even though Garrett hasn't posted on Townhall since May, his contributions have helped Townhall sell advertising dollars. One would think that Garrett could have some sway to get the fantasy taken down.

We're a better nation than this, and one sick individual doesn't change that. At the same time, we have to expect those making and shaping public policy not to legitimize this sort of illness by providing it a forum.