PLATFORM : Grief Needs Time

Labels don’t kill people. Fertilizer and fuel oil kill people. But I sense that we are moving too soon from our shared grief and horror, reaching too quickly for the ready labels, trying to fit Oklahoma City into our cherished conspiracies.

The country is not ready for the debate to turn this fast. Babies are dead and dying. That brought us together, and we should remain together. Instead, we’re pulling apart, back into our own separate Americas where we can avoid anybody who disagrees with us.

If Rush Limbaugh is guilty of anything, it is of promoting separation with his “I’m the only truth you’ll ever need” broadsides. But I don’t blame Limbaugh for this. I don’t blame President Clinton. I don’t even blame G. Gordon Liddy. They didn’t influence this bombing any more than an electronic roundtable hosted by Oprah could have prevented it. They are just out there in the marketplace of ideas, saying extreme things, pushing the edge of the envelope.

The bombers may have listened once, but they are probably so far out now that they do not fit into any logical political spectrum.

I suggest we slow down. Every day is not an apocalypse, every comment is not an outrage. We need to talk and disagree without shouting. And most of all, we need to grieve a little longer, and we need to grieve together as a nation.