Today, we learned that our friend and colleague Brian Beutler was shot three times on a Washington D.C. street for no good reason at all. He is in stable condition, and over time he will be just fine– albeit, missing one less spleen. (His friend Tom Lee has written in reaction to this development: “We could all stand to be less splenetic.”) Greg Sargent has the details of the shooting and its aftermath. Meanwhile, Brian is in the thoughts and prayers of his countless friends.
Brian worked with me when I wrote about the Bush administration’s misuse of prewar intelligence to make the case to go to war with Iraq and the Fitzgerald investigation. He works for the media consortium, where he indefatigably reports about FISA and torture. Brian also has his own blog. He is not only a great journalist but has always been the type of friend who always has your back– which so many others are already doing and will now continue to do for him.
I learned of this news after coming back to Washington D.C. after spending time in Somerville, Mass., working on a story about a young veteran who came home safely from the violence of Iraq only to be killed in a senseless act of violence in a bar in Texas, apparently for doing nothing other than wearing a Red Sox jersey. Four of his friends with whom he played hockey and stickball with while growing up have also died from acts of violence, suicide, or drug abuse.
My emotions are a little raw now and I am not sure there is anything intelligent that I might say. But I hope people would watch this video of Robert Kennedy’s April 9 1968 speech bout the mindless stain of violence that has permeated a nation– and which continues to:
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