Sarah Palin has been in the crosshairs of the mainstream media since the shooting of Arizona politician Gabrielle Giffords and 18 other individuals. The shooting was at the hands of a lone gunman who was apprehended and is now in custody.  Some have accused Palin’s fiery rhetoric of instilling violence among her followers.

Palin is not the first individual to be accused of instilling passion in a group of followers.  Everyone from Thomas Paine to Martin Luther King Jr. to Barack Obama has understood that words have power.  Words cause people to act.  Words cause people to change.

Palin’s rhetoric lacks the eloquence of King and logic of Paine, but it none the less has made people passionate about something.

People were shot and some of them died in Arizona.  That is not the fault of Sarah Palin, that is not the fault of rhetoric, that is not the fault of the media.  Words change individuals, but individuals make change.  Jared Loughner showed no pious agenda, no logic, no passion.  Instead he showed general apathy for the world.  A feeling that all were unworthy.  He didn’t just shoot a politician.  He shot a nine year old girl.  And if Sarah Palin had been in his crosshairs, I doubt he would have hesitated to pull the trigger.

Palin’s politics are her own business.  Just like your politics are your own business.  If you decide the appropriate course of political action in 2011 is to hero worship the people on Fox News, that is your prerogative.  If Glen Beck advises you to buy stock in snot flavored bubble gum because its a true blue American product, and you do it and loose all your money.  Glen Beck is not responsible for your economic downfall.  We make our own decisions.  Take heart in the words of others, but heed common sense.

This is not to say that we shouldn’t be careful with our words.  Some people have obviously lost the ability to discern satire and overstatement from reality.

Words don’t kill people, bullets do and the person who’s shooting the gun is the one responsible.  If you dislike Sarah Palin take issue with her platforms and stop blaming her for random acts of violence.