American politics must change after Arizona gun attack, says Bill Clinton
By ANIWednesday, January 12, 2011
Port-au-PRINCE - Former US President Bill Clinton has said that the political climate in the United States must change in the wake of the shooting of a US Congresswoman and others in Arizona.
“No one intends to do anything that encourages this sort of behaviour, but political rhetoric falls on the unhinged and the hinged alike,” Clinton told the BBC in an interview.
Speaking on a trip to Haiti, Clinton said: “We cannot be unaware of the fact that - particularly with the Internet - there’s this huge echo chamber out there.”
He called on the US House of Representatives to “lead the way” in toning down the discourse.
“This is an occasion for us to reaffirm that our political differences shouldn’t degenerate into demonisation, in the sense that if you don’t agree with me you’re not a good American,” he said.
“I’m hoping there will be a lot of good debates that go beyond turning this into politics… about how and why it happened and what else we can do to minimise those things.”
Meanwhile, a mass was held for the victims of Saturday’s gun attack at the Saint Odilia Catholic Church.
The diocese named the service a “Mass of healing for our community”.
Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas is presiding over the event at the church, which sits several blocks from the site of the shooting.
The White House has announced that President Barack Obama will attend a memorial service on Wednesday evening at a basketball arena in Arizona.
He will address the crowd, and the service will include a Native American blessing, a moment of silence and a poetry reading. (ANI)
