Oh, no.

So, I was ironing and folding some quilt fabric I had bought, stacking it into piles based on fabrics I planned to use together. I decided to take a little break, walked out of my sewing room, and flipped on the television.

What is going on? They're saying a bunch of people have been shot in Arizona at some kind of a political town-hall type thing...some people have died but there are conflicting reports.

I watched a few minutes and then went back and ironed off some more fabric, because I just couldn't watch any more.

There's been some discussion that the representative who may have been a target was the subject of criticism and "abuse" from the Right. I have no idea if that's true or not, I have no idea if it's relevant here. (Possibly, the shooter was one of those random nutjob types, or had a grudge against someone else)

There's a lot of commentary already flying. I'm going to wait until things settle down more before I draw any conclusions about what's going on.

It's sad and it's ugly and I hope everyone who is being operated on now survives and heals. I hope they caught the guy and can figure out why he did it and maybe try to prevent similar events in the future.

IF this was a politically motivated attack, that's just wrong and evil. I don't care how strongly I disagree with some politician's policies or dislike them as a person; the only way I want to see them leave office is after being voted out by a majority of the voters. (Or, I suppose, convicted, if they're really and truly corrupt).

I don't like all the violence and rumors of violence (exploding mail packages, shooter events, the stuff that happened in Europe last week). Makes me feel like there's some kind of big bad thing building. I know a lot of the stuff is probably unrelated, but I still keep reciting Yeats' "The Second Coming" in my head when these kinds of things happen.

My prayers are with the families of those who were killed, those injured, and also with the people who had to witness this event.