And if it is, I am sorry. It's not my intent to offend anyone, or tell anyone else how they should conduct themselves or run their lives. I don't anyone telling me what to do, and so I would like to afford others that same respect. I would, however, like to post some observations I've been making here on DU and amongst some of my liberal friends, as well. I won't honestly be surprised if I get called a troll for this, or an apologist, or a republican operative. If you want to call me those things, I can assure you that it won't hurt my feelings - I've been called worse.

I remember Columbine. In the wake of that shooting, after the smoke cleared and the guns stopped firing, people started looking for a reason. "Subversive" media such as the video game Doom or rock groups like KMFDM and Marilyn Manson were frequent subjects of ire from the talking heads. Some others blamed lax parenting. Still others thought that bullying was the main issue. Mental illness was a reasonable assumption to make, as well. But one thing that pissed me off then, is that some were trying to use the tragedy as a knife to shove into Clinton. I wasn't such a politics geek then as I am now, but even then it still pissed me off because it just detracted from the real tragedy, and the real problem.

So now, here on DU, I have read several posts that are trying to turn this tragedy into a knife to shove into Bush. It's because he's gutted the mental health system. It's because of gun control laws. It's because of...whatever. Some of my friends have asked me "How can you not be pissed off at Bush over this?" Easy. Some things go beyond politics. What goes beyond politics, you might ask? Here's a clue:


Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20


Ryan Clark, 22


Daniel Perez Cueva, 21


Kevin Granata, 45


Matthew La Porte


Liviu Librescu, 76


G.V. Loganathan, 51

I look at their faces, and I've been trying to be a good liberal - honest. When this happened, my first instinct was to try and beat Bush with it. But I really can't, in good conscience, blame this on him. I know we all want to stick Bush as much as we can, but honestly, the man is a fucking pin-cushion. He's a sham of a president and a shell of a human being - and everyone knows it. The reason the right tried to stick Columbine on Clinton was that the man was squeaky clean compared with Bush. We don't need these people to mount our assault. How about we let them have their peace?