An Eye for An Eye Until the Both of Them Be Blind

Conservative firebrand blogger Andrew Breitbart died today at the age of 43 while walking in his Los Angeles neighborhood.  Over the past four years there has been no love lost between Mr. Breitbart and his liberal critics.  After all, Breitbart was responsible for the take down of the liberal leaning community organizing group ACORN by posting doctored videos of organization officials purportedly advising conservative activist James O'Keefe how to run a brothel and avoid federal taxation.  He also posted a partial video that led many, including officials in the Obama Administration, to conclude that Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod admitted to discriminating against a white farmer in Georgia.  The full video later exonerated Sherrod but the damage to her reputation had been done.  More recently, Breitbart was the first to post the partially nude photos Representative Anthony Weiner had tweeted of himself to a young woman in Washington.  The scandal resulted in Weiner's resignation from Congress and his seat being won by a Republican last summer.  Breitbart's single mission in life was to destroy all things liberal.  He often took it too far and engaged in distortion, deceit, and outright lying to achieve his purpose.  In Andrew Breitbart's world, the end clearly justified the means.  When liberal icon Senator Edward Kennedy died of brain cancer in 2009 Breitbart called him "a villain", "a duplicitous bastard", and "a prick" among many other unflattering things.

A short 2 1/2 years later, Breitbart himself is dead.  The left has been equally uncharitable in response to his death as he was to the death of Edward Kennedy.  Now, I didn't know Ted Kennedy or Andrew Breitbart.  I had, and have, questions about what motivated both of them to do what they did.  I will say that while I disagreed with Sen. Kennedy on many issues, I nevertheless respected his passion for the poor and unfortunate among us.  I cannot say the same for Andrew Breitbart or his tactics but my heart goes out to his wife and children.  But neither will I resort to nor condone the epithets hurled by the 'tolerant' left at Mr. Breitbart.  He is the product of a system that idolizes free speech without regard to truth, that elevates ideology above country and truth, symbolism above substance, and sensationalism above critical thinking.  When passion replaces reason all of us end up as losers.  And the national conversation about the important issues of our time is silenced.

I am reminded of a song by Tommy Sands called "There were roses" about the tit for tat killing of protestants by Catholics and vice-versa in Northern Ireland.  The lyrics read:

So my song for you this evening, it's not to make you sad
Nor for adding to the sorrows of our troubled northern land
But lately I've been thinking and it just won't leave my mind
I'll tell you of two friends of mine who were both good friends of mine 

Isaac Scott from Banagh, he lived just across the fields
A great man for the music, the dancing and the reels
McDonald came from South Armagh to court young Alice fair
And we often met on the Ryan Road and laughter filled the air 

There were roses, roses
There were roses
And the tears of a people ran together 

Now Isaac he was Protestant and Sean was Catholic born
But it never made a difference, for the friendship it was strong
And sometimes in the evening when we heard the sound of drums
We said it won't divide us, we always will be one 

For the ground our fathers plowed in, the soil it is the same
And the places where we say our prayers have just got different names
We talked about the friends who'd died and hoped there'd be no more
It was little then we realized the tragedy in store 

There were roses, roses
There were roses
And the tears of a people ran together 

It was on a Sunday morning when the awful news came round
Another killing had been done just outside Newry Town
We knew that Isaac danced up there, we knew he liked the band
But when we heard that he was dead we just could not understand 

We gathered round the graveside on a cold and rainy day
The minister he closed his eyes and for no revenge he prayed
And all of us who knew him from along the Ryan Road
We bowed our heads and said a prayer for the resting of his soul 

There were roses, roses
There were roses
And the tears of a people ran together 

Now fear it filled the countryside there was fear in every home
When late at night a car came prowling round the Ryan Road
A Catholic would be killed tonight to even up the score
Oh Christ it's young McDonald they've taken from the door 

Isaac was my friend! he cried, he begged them with his tears
But centuries of hatred have ears that do not hear
An eye for an eye, it was all that filled their minds
And another eye for another eye till everyone is blind 

There were roses, roses
There were roses
And the tears of a people ran together 

So my song for you this evening, it's not to make you sad
Nor for adding to the sorrows of our troubled northern land
But lately I've been thinking and it just won't leave my mind
I'll tell you of two friends of mine who were both good friends of mine 

Now I don't know where the moral is or where this song should end
But I wonder just how many wars are fought between good friends
And those who give the orders are not the ones to die
It's Scott and McDonald and the likes of you and I 

There were roses, roses
There were roses
And the tears of a people ran together
There were roses, roses
There were roses....

I hope and pray that is not the road we are heading down as we elevate our politics to the status of a religion.  For if it is, soon we'll all be blind.  Or worse.