Here is my letter to Al Martinez, front page columnist for Los Angeles Daily News
Dear Mr. Martinez:
Re: Your column “We all died that tragic day in Tucson” http://www.dailynews.com/columnists/ci_17090805
This may come as a shock, but we did not “all” die a little that tragic day in Tucson. Accordingly, that does not make any of us bad or uncaring people.
Some of us actually grew and now live even stronger, which is the true nature of dealing with tragedy.
Correspondingly, Congress should never close down, but work longer hours to eliminate unemployment, which essentially leads to even more senseless and unnecessary crime.
This past week, the American flag has been flying at half-staff. Yet no elected Federal official died. You may want to check the U.S. Flag Code. The Code also gives the President the right to make some reasonable half-staff flag requests. It's highly unlikely that he would've requested the flag flying at half-staff if a Republican member of Congress had been critically injured.
The bottom line of this tragedy is that it's been about politics, nothing else.
On the other hand, if you want to get to the real “bottom line” (profit), you may want to rightfully lay blame on the true culprit. If you do, look no further than your newspaper. All you have to do is glance over at the large, front-page color photo next to your column today and see a so-called actor glamorizing a highly lethal weapon in his right hand, as the Daily News gives free front-page publicity for yet another violence-packed movie.
Then go to the front page of your Weekend section (movies) and that same photo is blown up larger, also in color, that gives an even closer look at this high-powered gun. Go to page 2, and you see this same gunman in another pose, but still with this very serious gun in his right hand.
Go to page 3 and you will see a double-barreled handgun of the likes nobody could imagine or create except the entertainment industry. Our own military has no such weapon for our brave soldiers to defend against a real, live brutal enemy.
Mr. Martinez, please write an article about the truth, i.e., the entertainment industry that glorifies killing with unimaginably deadly weapons. Equally culpable, criticize the newspapers that advertise this horrific violence.
And don't forget to criticize our public-funded city buses with large advertisements inside and outside promoting this same violence. Yet, Mayor Villaraigosa has the audacity to complain there's not enough money for a police force to stop local violence.
And where are non-stop stories about the LAPD officer recently shot in the line of duty? Why isn't the American flag at half-staff?
If you do write an honest column about the aforementioned, be prepared to get fired because newspapers survive on advertising dollars, most of it from the entertainment industry. And that's the truth in Advertising 101.
Instead of trying to figure out who to blame the Tucson tragedy on besides the deranged killer himself, do the right thing. Follow the entertainment industry money trail. You may end up being that Don Quixote you say we are all seeking.
Here is a link to my own article that recently appeared in “thefrontpageonline.com Al Rosebrock, Silent Hero – http://www.thefrontpageonline.com/articles1-8639/AlRosebrockSilentHero
So long as we continue to politicize every tragedy for ideological gain, Don Quixote's we are all seeking will always remain in yesteryear's history.
Sincerely,
Robert L. Rosebrock
Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted rrosebrock1@aol.com