Wrong Mrs Palin

I think Sarah Palin's "blood libel" comment was unfortunate. I would not say that she has contributed to the tragedy of the shootings, but I do think her cross hairs map is very unwise and ill considered given the culture and times in which she lives. But I do want to say that her statement about the culpability for the crime "begins and ends with the criminal" is wrong! (Why was she so so defensive?) There are lots of contributing factors to crime, and somehow the ethos, the economics and the values of the culture contribute to crime. While that person is culpable and should be held responsible for the crime, it should be a spur for society as a whole to ask, "What is there in our culture, ethos and values that sets the scene for such things to happen?" It is a dangerous and irresponsible individualism that does not acknowledge that there are wider contributing factors to crimes. Studies have shown, for example, that where there is a wide disparity between rich and poor, then crime increases. This is true also even if the person is classed as mentally ill. Why is it that we spit so many people out the back end of our society who cannot cope with life in "normal" ways? (I ask this regularly as I share in our Friday night drop in centre.... so many distorted, twisted up and wasted lives! How come? What are we doing wrong?) This is something we in NZ need to take on board also. Headlines last week suggested our drinking culture is a national disaster. The various statistics relating to health problems and numbers of problem drinkers are staggering. We need to be asking questions about values and ways such irresponsible drinking is encouraged and reinforced. Another issue is why there has been such an increase in violent crime? Why do we have such a poor record in terms of domestic violence? Of course the perpetrators need to take responsibility, but as a wider society we need to re-examine the way we think and do things also. We will not find solutions by burying our heads in the sand and just blaming the individual, we must look at the wider picture.

Sorry Mrs Palin, I think you are wrong, you would not get my vote.