Here’s the thing about Arizona: it is in many ways (weather excepted!) a reasonable kind of place. Sure you can find extremists there, but they are in the minority. It shows in the elections; even though it’s decidedly a red state, candidates both both parties routinely get elected, all the way up to the governor’s office. According to CNN, they are showing sense, courage and heart.
In response to the shootings in Oro valley and the Westboro Baptist Church’s announced plans to protests, it looks from out here like the state is coming together to say “Not on our turf!”
The governor has passed emergency legislation to prevent protests at a funeral, from one hour before to one hour after. Locals are planning an “angel action” – lining the funeral route with silent people wearing 10′ tall angel wings to block mourners’ view of the protestors. *Both* the local Republican and Democratic parties are asking members to line the route and shelter the mourners similarly.
It’s so often true that communities come together after a disaster, the glory and tragedy of humans as a group. I don’t know what Arizonans could do or could have done to respond to the original shooting (other than the brave people who wrestled the shooter down and prevented more deaths). I’m not sure there’s much they could have done at all. But this is something they can do, and it’s very good to see such a wide range of people stepping up to do it.