But he was inflammatory himself with that headline, way too over the top for my taste. It was almost taunting. Some words, and the thoughts that go with them, are just too strong, too stinky, too loaded.

Besides, many people in the public eye are obviously at risk of violence. Public buildings have metal detectors in them for a reason. So do schools, unfortunately.

Knoxville was certainly a poignant reminder that rhetoric can turn into violence. I’m just not sure the approach Tim took is any better.

I’m not a big “avoid the word” guy, but in this instance I disagree with how Tim went about this.

Let’s talk about racism. Let’s talk about hate. Let’s talk about the poisonous political climate on the right.

But let’s not talk about Barack Obama already having been assassinated.

Look at what happened in Tennessee… that’s going over the boundary, and I think that’s what inspired Tim to wave the warning flag.

And if we all think about it for a moment, Tim’s almost certainly gotten more than just your full attention with this, has he not?

I’m barely old enough to have a hazy memory of President John Kennedy’s assassination on 22 November 1963.

My memories of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on 4 April 1968 and Robert Kennedy on 6 June 1968 (my brother’s seventh birthday) are sharper.

I recall 15 May 1972 when Governor George Wallace survived five bullets fired by an assassin’s pistol.

I recall both 5 and 22 September 1975 when President Gerald Ford survived two assassination attempts.

I recall 30 March 1981 when President Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt.

We are a nation that during my lifetime has known too well the power of assassins. As a nation we know there is a tiny, but ever present, minority that believes that the solution to their particular problem can be found in assassinating what their twisted mind perceives as the source of that problem.

I know that there is no team of Secret Service agents in the world today more vigilant than the men and women protecting Senator Barack Obama and his family. They know that the assassin is out there. They know that the assassination has been planned. They know that the attempt will be made. They know that they are what stands between The United States of America, tragedy and yet another infamous date.

Avoiding the word is meaningless.

B’shalom,

Jeff