The drama unfolding over this tragedy isn't just happening on the left.  While the left is busy trying to lay blame for a deranged psychopath at the feet of talk radio, Sarah Palin and every other conservative voice they want to silence, the right is acting just as crazy.  While I don’t believe, and facts in the case are starting to prove, that the monster Loughner was politically motivated, violence sometimes is politically motivated.  And sometimes, that violence is warranted.  Before you leave this site for fear that Homeland Security has now tracked your IP address because you were on an extreme, hate-speech, or terrorist site, you’ll agree with me if you read on.

Monday, well-known political commentator Glenn Beck announced a pledge which he challenged his listeners, and anyone else who would give him the time of day, to commit and sign. In his attempt to keep the liberal media from taking Rahm Emmanuel’s advice to never let a good crisis go to waste by attacking conservative voices they want to silence with blame for the incident, Beck went way too far.  Per his website, the statements made in the pledge were:

• I denounce violence, regardless of ideological motivation.
• I denounce anyone, from the Left, the Right or middle, who believes physical violence is the answer to whatever they feel is wrong with our country.
• I denounce those who wish to tear down our system and rebuild it in their own image, whatever that image may be.
• I denounce those from the Left, the Right or middle, who call for riots and violence as an opportunity to bring down and reconstruct our system.
• I denounce violent threats and calls for the destruction of our system – regardless of their underlying ideology – whether they come from the Hutaree Militia or Frances Fox Piven.
• I hold those responsible for the violence, responsible for the violence.  I denounce those who attempt to blame political opponents for the acts of madmen.
• I denounce those from the Left, the Right or middle that sees violence as a viable alternative to our long established system of change made within the constraints of our constitutional Republic.

If any of these points were true, we would still be subjects of England and the British Crown.  There is a time and a place for violence, or have we forgotten the sacrifice of those who died to found this country?  Or the sacrifice of those who died for what they believed was a war to keep it unified?  The American Revolution and the Civil War cost over half a million lives.  And after the Revolution, many of the founders made it quite clear that they expected the battle to have to be refought.  Jefferson even said that from time to time the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots.  The Founders wouldn't have created the 2nd amendment to give us recourse over tyrannical government – if they didn’t believe that violence was never the answer.  The 2nd Amendment is all about the threat of violence against those who would attempt to re-enslave us.  If we renounce our right to do violence, we no longer need guns at all and government is free to do whatever it wants without fear of reprisal.

As much as I like Beck and his attention to history and the Constitution, he and any who think like this, are way off base.  Do not be so afraid of our past, and any labels that liberals throw at you, lest you wish to live under the dark cloud of government force with no recourse.  If we are so crazy as to espouse that violence is never the answer we have completely conceded the need for the 2nd Amendment and, like Esau of old, given away our birthright simply to make ourselves feel better.  Should violence ever be off the table, when dealing with government?  No!  But it also should be the means of last resort and is not to be undertaken lightly nor should it undertaken by lone gunmen.  The threat of violence is our last and best bargaining chip for dealing with a government that has overstepped its bounds.  But the incident in Arizona had nothing to do with that and everything to do with a deranged lunatic.  Don’t let the left or the right use this heinous crime to diminish our rights to both speak freely - about politics, about issues, about using violence itself, or to take away our right to bear arms.