Well, folks, things rarely get much crazier than this. 

Yesterday, a twenty-two year old man named Jared Loughner attempted to assassinate Democratic U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords at a Safeway in Tucson, Arizona. She was shot in the head.  The bullet passed through her brain, leaving her still alive but in critical condition.  Besides Giffords, twelve other people were injured and six killed, including a child, a member of Congresswoman Giffords' staff, and U.S. District Judge John Roll.  Roll had received death threats in the past, particularly after allowing a $32 million civil rights law suit by immigrants against an Arizona ranch owner to be heard in court.  In other words, he was threatened for not being bound by the same prejudices of others.  Judge Roll had served the American legal system for over forty years and was appointed to the federal district seat in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush.

The murdered child was a young girl (age 9) named Christina Green who was interested in politics and wanted to meet Representative Giffords at her constituent meeting outside of the Safeway.  The other three victims were all septuagenarians (Dorwan Stoddard, aged 76; Dorothy Morris, aged 76; and Phyllis Schneck, aged 79). 

The shooter had been known to be mentally unstable and had a criminal record.  Interestingly, Arizona's lack of any gun registration laws whatsoever enabled Loughner to legally purchase a weapon. 

This event is a tragedy, all the more so because it simply makes no sense.  Loughner is believed to have been an anti-government activist and supporter of the anti-Semitic ideas presented in Mein Kampf.  He was also believed to belong to the white supremacist/nationalist group American Renaissance.  The horrifying reality is that the attack was directed at individuals for no more reason than that they were themselves reasonable people.  The blind hatred of others, not based on rational disagreement, but merely because they have rational views, is one of the most insane forces in this world.  In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." 

Tucson's sheriff later commented on the shooting, stating that Arizona had become "the mecca of prejudice and bigotry." 

The nature of terrorism is that it only works when we're afraid.  Acts of this kind should not prompt us to cower or fear speaking our minds or standing for what is right and what is reasonable.  Rather, it makes rational discourse all the more vital to maintain sanity in an insane world.