{"id":10305,"date":"2015-10-03T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2015-10-03T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=10305"},"modified":"2018-12-28T14:03:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T19:03:43","slug":"why-are-some-senseless-tragedies-okay-to-politicize-while-others-are-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2015\/10\/03\/why-are-some-senseless-tragedies-okay-to-politicize-while-others-are-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are Some Senseless Tragedies Okay to Politicize, While Others Are Not?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"My_Guns_006\"<\/a>If there is one thing all Americans can agree on it is that we must take all reasonable steps to prevent the sort of mass murders that took place in Roseburg, Oregon, on Thursday from happening again.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a statement regarding the massacre at Umpqua Community College,\u00a0<\/span>President Obama pulled no punches\u00a0in stating that the tragedy should be politicized. \u201cAnd, of course, what\u2019s also routine is that somebody, somewhere will comment and say, Obama politicized this issue.\u00a0 Well, this is something we should politicize\u2026This is a political choice that we make to allow this to happen every few months in America. We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction,\u201d Obama said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The president went on to list a litany of instances where avoidable tragedies have resulted in policy changes designed to prevent them from being repeated. \u201cWhen Americans are killed in mine disasters, we work to make mines safer. When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes, we make communities safer.\u00a0 When roads are unsafe, we fix them to reduce auto fatalities. We have seatbelt laws because we know it saves lives. So the notion that gun violence is somehow different, that our freedom and our Constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon, when there are law-abiding gun owners all across the country who could hunt and protect their families and do everything they do under such regulations doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When Americans are\u00a0killed and otherwise victimized in large numbers by illegal aliens<\/a>\u00a0who have been released back onto the streets of the United States by policies his administration has implemented, or by state and local sanctuary policies his administration refuses to confront, well that\u2019s a different story. We do nothing at all. The president does not step up to the microphones in the West Wing and condemn it. As a matter of fact, he can\u2019t even find the time to call the families of the victims.<\/p>\n

But we get more than just silence from the White House and its allies. We get outraged lectures from the defenders of federal and local sanctuary policies decrying the politicization of these senseless and avoidable crimes. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the ranking minority member on the House Immigration Subcommittee,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0expressed exactly that sentiment in the wake of Kate Steinle\u2019s murder in July. \u201cWe ought to look at what will make the system work better, not use this tragedy as an excuse for a political agenda,\u201d she admonished.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Lofgren\u2019s outrage was nothing compared to that of Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who laid into the Center for Immigration Studies\u2019 Jessica Vaughn at a congressional hearing in July. \u201c[P]eople have decided to besmirch people\u2019s reputation, and take their words, and exploit the death of a beautiful young American woman\u2026 don\u2019t exploit a young woman\u2019s death in order to receive a paycheck to put food on your table.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the realm of politics, not all senseless and avoidable tragedies are created equal.