Monday Morning: Making Sense Of It All

Published January 10, 2011

Good morning. It’s hard to talk about anything other than what happened in Tucson this weekend.

On Point is devoting both hours of the show today to the shooting. WBUR’s Tom Ashbrook writes:

This is the river’s edge. We’ve got to pull back. Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford’s shooter was 22. That means he grew up in America’s years of trash talk – of increasingly rash, intolerant, hate-filled talk. Years of framing disagreement as Armageddon and opponents as traitors. This has to stop.

The Herald’s Joe Fitzgerald said “we’ve created a monster” as he remembers RFK’s assassination.

Morning Edition spoke with Rep. Michael Capuano, who said he has received physical threats before but none that he took seriously. Capuano also said the aggressive rhetoric has gotten out of hand. I’ll post the link as soon as the story is up.

In other news, we’re expecting another big winter storm on Wednesday. The French Toast Alert is Elevated.

Sudanese ex-pats voted in the historic secession referendum yesterday in Arlington.

The driver of an SUV who struck and injured a six-year-old girl from Allston — and then fled the scene Saturday — is still at large. The girl suffered a broken neck; she is in serious condition at Children’s Hospital. Police are looking for a silver Jeep Cherokee with front-end damage.

The T is (finally) cracking down on parking scofflaws.

And on the lighter side…

T riders went pants-free yesterday. There’s video.

Comedian Rachel Dratch says 2010 was an active year for the Boston accent.