D-I-S-R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I can understand the feeling that this fellow Morris out in Arizona gets, having lost his wife, because there would be no "me" without my beloved Peggy.

But Morris lost his wife in the Gabby Giffords slaughter down there in the Cactus State and, as much as I sympathize and empathize with his losing a wife, I am repulsed by the stupid things he is saying.  You can click on the link and read them right out of the Arizona Republic; I won't give them the light of day.


A few facts: This nation was built upon the free exchange of ideas.  Former Marine Morris and his wife had every right to go to that Safeway that Saturday and meet their congresswoman, whose love of public service led her to schedule the open forum for all.  (As opposed to the congressman in the next district over from us, who schedules his "open meetings" by sending texts to his loyal supporters just before the meeting, thereby keeping pesky reporters and Democrats at bay.) Yes, they went to the meeting, and of course, this maniac Loughner killed and injured people who were only trying to exchange ideas.  Which is why Morris was there.  He wanted to tell Rep. Giffords that she is too liberal for his tastes, but he didn't get the chance to say this before the bullets ruined so much.


We are responsible for our actions, which is why Loughner now awaits both sanity and a trial. Morris is blaming Rep. Giffords's husband for not providing security for her, although he fails to point the same finger at himself for not doing the same for his spouse.   Perhaps he feels guilt because he survived and his wife did not.  That is understandable, but why express it with such venom toward another victim?


Morris refused a visit from the president when Mr Obama flew down to AZ to meet the survivors and mourn the lost.  That's called disrespect to the commander in chief, which is something that no good Marine would ever display.  He shows disrespect again by calling Gifford's's husband, Mark Kelly, "our dear captain astronaut."  The whole Marine ethos is built on unflinching, automatic adherence to rules and policies.  There's no room in their rulebook for someone who expresses his negative regard toward persons of higher rank. Feel it all you want!  Think it, let it settle in the old brainpan and stay for good, but keep it to yourself! 


Morris says that his wife worried that he would offend people with his talk of liberal politicians leading the country down the tubes when all along, a man who really cares about his wife's feelings would not embarrass her in social situations with his rants about how the liberals are taking the country down the tubes.   There are ways to disagree politely, ways to let your feelings be known without getting the askance looks from your neighbors, but Mr Morris does not seem to be a man who would seek that middle ground.

Writing on a blog called Jezebel, Margaret Hartmann says this whole thing is just  "tremendously sad." Morris is "challenging anyone who says the lesson from the attack is that there needs to be more civility in politics," she writes. "Either he's focusing his anger over his wife's murder on Giffords or he's truly so partisan that he can't look past the fact that he disagrees with her politically—or perhaps it's a mix of both."

It's a sad day in America when people can't meet in civil congress, as it were, on a shopping center parking lot in Arizona to discuss our various approaches to what's best for America.  What really annoys me about this man - and again, I ascribe most of his uncalled-for remarks to the awful tragedy he survived - is that he is of that generation and social stripe - retired, conservative, ex-military - that would normally eschew such behavior.  Morris calls himself an ultraconservative.  Tell me, what is so conservative about being so obstreperously disrespectful to high government officials?  If a left-leaning liberal were in his shoes, and a guy like Bush were back in the White House, the O'Limbaughs would be in barely-controlled snits of rage.  "How DARE he ignore the POTUS?  And a former Marine, to boot!  What is this world coming to, that he would display such contempt?"


What is this world coming to, indeed.