Amazing what a short memory we have

especially after Sarah Palin's map with crosshairs on it and message to her Teapublican followers, "Don't retreat, instead - Reload!" Gabby Giffords prophetic words followed, "We're on Sarah Palin's targeted list. But the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. People do that, they've got to realize there's consequences to that action."

We can sit here all high and mighty in "the land of the free and home of the brave" and spout platitudes about how free speech is a universal human right all day long. Sarah Palin was doing nothing more than exercising her right to free speech, yet how many of you were outraged when the consequences of Palin's words rang out in Tuscon.

Reality check: Words have consequences.

Reality check: Freedom of speech is not world wide. Not everyone holds our values. It's jingoistic to expect that they would.

The only reason this film received the notoriety it did was because it was promoted by Pastor Terry Jones whose own free speech act of burning a Quran incited a riot that resulted in the death of 12 people in Afghanistan. So while you condemn Sarah Palin for her free speech inciting violence, you defend a scumbag like Terry Jones for his free speech that everyone knew ahead of time would have violent and potentially lethal consequences for Americans abroad? How's that double standard working out for you there?

We live in a country where we enjoy the right to free speech, but that does not let us off the hook for being responsible for our speech acts. It's time we get out of our comfy little sandbox, grow up, and start taking responsibility for what we put out there. The world is what it is, not as we would have it. And words do have consequences - sometimes deadly ones.