The title of this post is not my own creation. It was supplied by The Sun and News when this essay was printed in today’s edition in Letters from Our Readers. It accurately captures the central point.
Again with the killings. Again, a person who under any sane regulatory system would not have been permitted to own and carry firearms wreaks havoc and sheds blood. News reports tell us that responsible Democrats called for—not the banning of gun ownership, or any other Draconian reaction—but for legislation for which polls show majority, bipartisan support. Responsible Republican leaders called for bipartisan cooperation to find solutions. But . . .
“Rep. Angela Rigas, R-Caledonia, offered a more confrontational response Tuesday afternoon.” (This is a quotation from an MLive article)
Our representative cannot even express sorrow at these deaths without pivoting instantly to state even more emphatically her anger at anyone who advocates even moderate, broadly popular measures to make such shootings less likely. If the students who died were your relatives or friends, you have her condolences. And if you even think about working together across the partisan divide to seek sane, conservative measures to prevent the next such killing rampage, you can expect to be the target of her bitter rage.
This is the pattern thus far. The person who is supposed to be representing our district in Lansing is instead so given over to maligning her opponents—and now also battling moral and legal accusations, not from her political opponents but from her own closest allies—that she is unable to do anything constructive for us. The gun queen specializes in shooting herself in the foot. Whatever you were hoping Angela Rigas would accomplish, whether your goals are conservative, liberal, or any shade in between, she shows no sign yet of accomplishing anything, because all her energy is going into alienating everyone.
Look at her Facebook pages, jukeboxes that play only two tunes: “I Love Guns” and “I Hate Democrats. People who voted for the candidate whose postcards said “I am a Christian” might have been hoping to hear a little love of neighbor and even love of enemy.
A few anarchists among us may be pleased, but I can’t believe that what we are getting is what most people who voted for her were hoping for. It is, however, what many of us who voted against her feared. Her unwise and unhealthy response to this latest shooting spree comes as no surprise. Surely she is capable of better.
Ultimately there are only two ways. The way of unrestrained negative emotionality fosters anger and hate, which bring death; as Jesus taught, to hate is to murder. We have seen murder again on the campus of MSU. How about if we all tried urging each other to respond in the other way, the way of love?
See also her Representative Rigas’s press release, which entirely omits sorrow for the deaths and compassion for the MSU students and their families to dive straight into the polemics against Democrats. Even the conventional “thoughts and prayers” verbiage is presented as evidence that she is better than the Democrats, who she says are anti-faith.
Since I mention Representative Rigas’s Facebook pages, I’ll point them out so you can see them for yourself if you want:
- A Public Figure page, from which she has blocked many of her constituents, including me: I believe this one originated as a campaign page: https://www.facebook.com/AngelaRigas4MI. This page currently has 13,000 followers.
- Another Public Figure page, ditto on the blockings: https://www.facebook.com/angela.rigas.5. This page currently has 6,900 followers.
- Her Government Official page. Here Facebook does not allow her to block people or delete comments: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089494748026. This page currently has 1,000 followers.
Note the numbers of followers. This is significant because Angela uses the Public Figure pages for her meanest and most partisan posts. When people criticize her for these posts, she blocks them. (Of course we can see them anyway.) She is not allowed to block people or remove comments from her Government Official page, so there she is a bit more circumspect.
Here are some sample posts that no responsible public figure of any political persuasion should be posting:
[UPDATE 2/19/2023: It appears that Representative Rigas has removed all of the posts that I pointed listed. This is progress. Thank you, Angela. I am deleting the now defunct URLs and my descriptions of the posts.]
[FURTHER UPDATE 2/20/2023: Nope. She did not delete them. Just some trickery to alter their visibility to selected parties. I’m restoring the list.]
Here are a few sample posts:
https://www.facebook.com/angela.rigas.5/posts/pfbid05xSDa5t3tFbCmu8AZp8Cg7um1ERMMpZ2CaJSBrQc1S1CwDdwhTw5tc3qAcf1LJ4Sl: A skit making the point that Democrats are people who have their heads up their asses.
https://www.facebook.com/angela.rigas.5/posts/pfbid0xCpHfF6eWkbCSFR4aQKSP33Ei7pf3kCNEiQht1dDN3PfWvNtSE6Lg9RvuUmcD78y: a meme encouraging people to see vaccinations as hostile assaults, as attempts to kill them.
https://www.facebook.com/angela.rigas.5/posts/pfbid035J6mqGXjKc46GrgFBzo2YmdhuwNLGeyxgQFkJGEUEQQo3UAVth2dZJBkxo7PH6Rql: a post proposing Kyle Rittenhouse as the hero who could shoot down the Chinese spy balloon.
https://tinyurl.com/2p8e59ew: a background photo feature Representative Rigas costumed as a terrorist or mass murderer.
https://www.facebook.com/AngelaRigas4MI/posts/pfbid02WkJ47BpdNCpKPwCzjN3ACyJSZUZmk5pdk7GexfroHQoqhoLLAM3wjXYKXHzWq69cl: scare-mongering, gay-bashing meme meant to fuel fears that the homos are taking over the schools.
https://www.facebook.com/AngelaRigas4MI/posts/pfbid02rH8YWE3jWGJUWM6HuHU7ejFrAt8u29h9zD4KQZcZovvPD9d3GLMjgoSPcVRBF1WDl: meme implying that the coronavirus, vaccines for the coronavirus, support for Ukraine against Russia, and defense of our airspace against spy balloons are all attempts by sinister forces to hypnotize the American people.
https://www.facebook.com/AngelaRigas4MI/posts/pfbid0MQirp9MKAwtMn9psJMoMhALgoLWCsPqKiJ3rZ77z3sbnzaY5bH1JmCgyjZxufcdKl: another self-pitying, self-deceiving attempt to deflect the John Clore revelations.
https://www.facebook.com/AngelaRigas4MI/posts/pfbid03G3gq6jtJDNyYwLSLi2ogv7XjhqtxcCEfbYc1kdJrRH6Lj8DD6wmSXvYRWoT8bKKl: a meme indicating that Representative Rigas would enjoy seeing her followers assault her critics physically.
https://www.facebook.com/AngelaRigas4MI/posts/pfbid0cibo1qM2pVYitNL6naXBSt5QCYqyGh2F7PDjUPzX32c5U3eNp1YLmSLubcoBv6Wpl: a meme calling President Biden a Chinese-owned bag of hot air.
https://www.facebook.com/AngelaRigas4MI/posts/pfbid034banp5XLu1WsxwKNyzpgCLrwAyhx6TJ5AkT13b24Sz1mZbA6qqHEjvNKBVnUj4S3l: a meme suggesting that an important federal law enforcement agency with legitimate jurisdiction over federal firearms violations is anti-American.
https://www.facebook.com/AngelaRigas4MI/posts/pfbid0ovjHA2CgvSSSfU5JxRPhqrWu1vsn6u4t6ePGaxtwmgKtFSygGZY2GvhhKnnTzDajl: A meme implying that childhood vaccinations are unhealthy and cause sickness.
A person who posts like this is unfit for public office.
Verba Sparsa 