Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head today when a gun man fired allegedly 15 to 20 bullets into a small crowd outside of a grocery store during a meeting held by Ms. Giffords with her constituents. The gunman killed six people, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge, and wounded 13 others. (Live update can be found on HuffPost)

First and foremost, let’s pray and/or send loving, healing thoughts for the victims and their families. There have been lots of conflicting report on the condition of Ms. Giffords. Politico reported that she has been out of surgery and in good condition and has been able to recognize her husband, Shuttle Discovery Commander Mark Kelly. Let’s pray that this is the case.

Amongst all the tragedies in AZ today, the most heart-breaking is the death of the 9-year-old girl, Christina Taylor Greene, born September 11, 2001. She was newly elected to the student council and went to the meeting today so she could learn more about government processes.

RIP Christina Greene.

RIP All Those Who Lost Their Lives Today.

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Updated: I was all ready to hit the publish button but I came across a video on YouTube featuring Fred Phelps thanking the gunman for doing god’s work in Arizona today. I have also been seeing reports from Glenn Beck’s and Conservative Christian’s websites that Westboro Church has announced their plan to picket the funerals of the victims in the shooting. Please, let’s pray that THIS IS NOT THE CASE. What has the world come to?

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News media and the Internet, including the social media, are abuzz with the potential motivation for such brutality and violence and fingers have been pointed and shouts have been fired.

The first person to offer an explanation (or unfair blame, depending on where you are coming from) was surprisingly Arizona Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik:

When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.

He did not specifically name names. Even if some critics may not like what he had to say above, we should be able to agree on what he had to say about the current state of the so-called media:

Let me say one thing, because people tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol that we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that…  That may be free speech, but it’s not without consequences… It’s time that this country take a little introspective look at the crap that comes out on radio and TV.

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Although I have some thoughts in response to Mr. Dupnik’s strong statements, I don’t want to hijack this tragic event with my psychotic foaming.  At least not tonight. I do want to quickly share a piece of fact with you: Sarah Palin and the Tea Party were somehow specifically mentioned in the reporting of this tragedy. Why? Here is the context:

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It is chilling now to see Rep. Giffords’ name on the (literally) targeted list. Of course, it is unfair, even I have to agree, to blame Palin for the gunman’s action based on this picture. However, it does show how the extreme elements on one side is leaning more and more towards relying on violence and the rhetorics of it and at the same time the respectable members within that side are not doing anything to revert that trend.