Church Shooter Who Murdered Progressives Pleads Guilty

Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville at 3:06 PM on February 10, 2009.

The abhorrent shitbag who killed two and injured six more people at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee last year, because he hates liberals and believes Democrats "were responsible for his woes," has pleaded guilty to murder (and other charges) and has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He smiled as he entered his plea, showed no remorse, and declined to make any statement to the court or to his living victims and dead victims' survivors.

At the time of his arrest, a search of his house recovered, among other things:

"Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

I said at the time: The conservative media has long been centered around violent, eliminationist rhetoric and "jokes." I would like to think this tragedy will make people reconsider the wisdom of "jokes" exhorting violence against other Americans (or anyone else), and fear that it won't.

It's all too easy to shirk responsibility for one's contributions to the culture in which this happened with pithy statements like, "Millions of people listen to that stuff and only one guy took it to heart." Thing is, all of us who put ideas "out there" into the public sphere know damn well that we influence people, which is why it's important not to be flippant and toss around dangerous ideas as "jokes." And somehow, "Hey, I was only kidding; it's not my problem if the guy couldn't understand a joke" doesn't strike me as being of particular comfort, to the people who lost someone in a real-world manifestation of such "hilarity."

As I've said before, and will no doubt say again, this shit doesn't happen in a void. But the conservative punditry doesn't give a shit. They are the polar opposite of All In.

They're out. Out to lunch. Out of ideas. Out of touch. Outside the bounds of common decency. Without conscience. Without empathy. Without responsibility. Out of their fucking minds.

And I really wish they'd get out of my country.

Tagged as: church, knoxville, guilty, unitarian, murders, tragic, life in prison

Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.