On a recent road trip, during my 75-minute workout at the hotel fitness center, I noticed one of the TVs was tuned to Fox News. For more than an hour, their only focus was attempting to affix blame on Hillary Clinton for the four deaths in Benghazi 2 1/2 years prior.

It’s interesting at no time during the broadcast was there any acknowledgement that while they were discussing Benghazi, four more Americans were shot on American soil, as there has been approximately every 75 minutes for many years now without protection from Congress. In fact, more than 80,000 Americans have died from gunshots on our streets and within our homes and schools since the Benghazi attack, significantly more Americans than we lost in the entire Vietnam War.

Why is it that when four Americans are killed by foreigners, it demands top attention from the tabloids years later, but when Americans kill each other on a daily basis, its not worthy of attention from the sensationalist “news” programs?

Some would say it’s more than just the deaths, but the suspicion that Clinton ignored the need for additional support for the Benghazi compound.

Does it make any difference that security upgrades had already been made to the Benghazi compound, and when Clinton requested more resources to protect embassies like Benghazi, such funding was denied by Congress as being too expensive?

Does it matter that the Republican-led House Select Committee, among others, has launched eight investigations of the Benghazi incident, with 13 hearings and 25,000 pages of reports, and that in all cases it was determined Clinton, the military, the intelligence network and the CIA all acted appropriately with the information they had?

And isn’t ironic, that far from being an oversight by the Secretary of State, the reasons given by the attackers at Benghazi for their assault of the embassy was to defend against the insults of a conservative Florida pastor Terry Jones’ (the guy who promoted burning Korans) promotion of a film humiliating their spiritual leader, even after the State Department asked him to back off because it was putting Americans overseas in danger?

I’m not promoting Clinton here or bashing conservatives; I am advocating for rational thinking.

We must rise out of the immaturity of tunnel vision, misplaced anger and petty attack of one another. Let’s support each other in growing up. Let us all, Republicans and Democrats, quit trying to find fault with each other, and do what good American leaders do. They work together and cooperate for a future that benefits all Americans.

Let’s support politicians that lead with reason. In order to do this, we as voters must return to reason and level-headedness first, for it is we who listen to ill-informed “news” tabloids, and it is we who elect those without sound judgment.

Profound disrespect from Pastor Jones led to American deaths on more than one occasion. Profound respect for each other can lead to saving lives in the future.

 

David Larson

Albert Lea