Mourning Theater

At the risk of sounding “un-American” and having my small, wave-able flag on a stick pried from my grasp, I find my skepticism surrounding the appearance of the President and First Lady at a mass service at the University of Arizona in honor and memory of both victims and heroes surrounding the shooting at an event for Congresswoman Giffords to be, well, incongruous particularly in comparison to another mass shooting in 2009. What is so significant about this particular shooting that it compelled our President to react so fervently compared to the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas on November 5, 2009 where 13 were killed and 34 were wounded?

President Obama’s reaction to the Fort Hood shooting was considered slow then awkward until ultimately labeled as “frightening insensitivity.” It was five days later that he visited Fort Hood.  He never called for a national moment of silence.  So why did he the day after the Arizona shooting?  I suppose one could argue that his political machine is improving and learning from mistakes, but I believe it is something more ineffectual. 

Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, a soldier against the war in Iraq, had stated once, “maybe the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor”, meaning the United States.  Hasan’s background (devout Muslim with Palestinian heritage) and his disapproval of the “war” in Iraq were, perhaps, troublesome for a President hounded by citizens alleging his connection to Muslim faith as well as his continuation of the occupation in Iraq.  So, President Obama frames the incident by focusing on the shooter and his mental instability stating, “In a country of 300 million people…There are going to instances, uh, in which, uh, an individual cracks.”  Yet, in Arizona, when Jared Lee Loughner opened fire killing 6 and wounding 13, Obama’s response was to urge all Americans to stop pointing fingers and "make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.'' In Fort Hood, the focus was on the shooter.  In Arizona, the focus was the victims.  Why?  

I submit that both shooters are individuals with “cracks” and neither more tragic nor nobler than the other and that President Obama showed weakness by denigrating and ostracizing Hasan when he could have (should have?) called for the same unification as he did in Arizona.