It has been a banner week for the word rhetoric. If one listens to the news or browses news stories on the internet, it seems that rhetoric is the buzz word of the day. All of this in the aftermath of the tragic shooting in Arizona, apparently directed at congress woman Gabrielle Giffords, but hitting 18 other people in the process, killing 6 so far. In the wake of this horrific tragedy, the rhetoric is flying.
From the left, there are accusations that this shooting was promoted by right wing inflammatory rhetoric. From the right, there are defenses against these accusations, and accusations of equally inflammatory rhetoric from the left.
From a Google news search for "rhetoric," here are a sampling of of the headlines:
Maybe we should stop with the rhetoric for a moment and actually find out why Loughner went on this rampage. Let the rhetorical jets cool, don't turn this tragedy into a political battleground, at least not until we know more about what happened and why it happened. Once that is established, and the truth be made known, then by all means, let the rhetoric fly in defense of the truth, but out of common decency, let's let those who have lost loved ones grieve, and those still fighting for their lives, actually have some peace.
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