The big news of the weekend was the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords and members of the public in a parking lot in Arizona. As a parent, I was particlarly upset by the death of a nine year old girl at the event. I'm not sure how a parent would ever recovered from such a tragedy.

My Twitterfeed, which has a distinct leftward tilt, directed much of their anger toward Palin and other tea party supporters that rely on gun-rhetoric. They said that this rhetoric was responsible for putting ideas in the head of an insane man. Others were upset about the ease of obtaining weapons in this country.

Laughner's problems were evident long before this parking lot shooting. He had attended a local college, where campus officials were forced to remove him from a class, because of his violent rants in a poetry class. Could the college have done more to notify local authorities about this man? Do we need better public mental health resources to identify and treat these personalities?

I'm not a fan of my local Congressman. His political priorities are very different from mine. I would actively support any worthy challenger in the next election. However, I'm about to call his office to offer my support. Our right to assemble is an essential part of our democracy, and one insane man did irreparable harm towards this right this weekend.