I know that I am NOT culpable

SaintSatinStain, I respectfully disagree with your assertion we are all indirectly or just as responsible as Sarah Palin for the terrorism in Arizona. If I were allowed to post on Left in Alabama I would have posted this response there, but since I'm not I will post it here with HOPE you read and will respond accordingly.

You said;

You and I, along with some
politicians and public figures,
right and left, probably contribute
to the sickness with use
of the imagery of violence.

I don't use imagery of violence and I don't know of any democratic politicians or public figures who do. As Melissa Ewen of Shakesville says;

An anonymous commenter at Daily Kos and the last Republican vice presidential nominee are not equivalent, no matter how many ridiculously irresponsible members of the media would have us believe otherwise.

You said;

Public figures with a following
need to take special care
in what they say.

On this point I agree, however as Melissa points out again;

There is, demonstrably, no leftist equivalent to Sarah Palin, former veep candidate and presumed future presidential candidate, who uses gun imagery (rifle sights) and language ("Don't Retreat, RELOAD") to exhort her followers to action.

You said;

We all need to take care
in what we say in public
and in private.

I guess it depends on who WE IS. It's a slippery slope when some have to watch what they say and others don't.

There is no leftist equivalent to the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a group which was created from the mailing list of the old white supremacist White Citizens Councils and has been noted as becoming increasingly "radical and racist" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which classifies the CCC as a hate group—and is nonetheless considered an acceptable association by prominent members of the Republican Party, including a a former senator and the last Republican presidential nominee.

You said;

Call folk on it whenever they use violence imagery, especially in political debate
and in the public space.

Again we agree people who use violent imagery should be called on it, however it can't be taken out of context, there is a difference in saying "I clean my flintlock and leave it loaded by the door." as an imagery to express the strength of your feelings about our racial and racist past and telling people if you can't win at the ballot box, use bullets.

There is no leftist equivalent to Glenn Beck, host of a long-running nationally syndicated radio show, former host of a show on CNN and current host of a show on Fox, best-selling author, DC rally organizer, and longtime user of eliminationist rhetoric, including equating universal health care to rape, joking about victims of forest fires being America-hating liberals, comparing Al Gore to Hitler, condoning the murder of Michael Moore, accusing Holocaust survivor George Soros of being a Nazi collaborator, joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi, equating immigration reform with burning US citizens alive, publicly endorsing violent revolution, and winkingly telling his viewers not to get violent, all of which amounts to a speck on the tip of a very big iceberg.

You said;

Believe in self defence
and defence of others, such as the weak,
but don't talk it, especially in public.
It may influence others, others
who don't perceive nuance real
and imagined.

What good is believing in self-defense and the defense of others if you can't talk about it? How you are you going to defend yourself and the weak with silence? IMHO that's why we're in this mess because those who believe in self-defense and the defense of others are silenced.

There is no leftist equivalent to Ann Coulter, best-selling author and syndicated columnist, who has been a panelist on Fox's Hannity 28 times and was on Hannity & Colmes an additional 18 times, who has been a guest multiple times on The O'Reilly Factor, Geraldo at Large, Larry King Live, Huckabee, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Hardball, and other cable news shows, has made appearances on The Tonight Show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Daily Show, and Real Time with Bill Maher, and has co-hosted The View, and has also said that a baseball bat is "the most effective way" to talk to liberals, as well as: "We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too." And: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building." And: "In [Clinton's] recurring nightmare of a presidency, we have a national debate about whether he 'did it,' even though all sentient people know he did. Otherwise there would be debates only about whether to impeach or assassinate."

You said;

No ambiguity in cross hairs, especially when used in targeting context.

Rationalizations, such as claim that it's surveyors' cross hairs, are disingenuous, spurious, and profane.

Per Melissa Ewen;

This is not an argument there is no hatred, no inappropriate and even violent rhetoric, among US leftists. There is.

This is evidence that, although violent rhetoric exists among US leftists, it is not remotely on the same scale, and, more importantly, not an institutionally endorsed tactic, as it is among US right wingers.

This is a fact. It is not debatable.

I will not apologize for standing up to the right-wing bully's. I am not culpable and neither are you.

The shooting in Tucson was not an anomaly. It was an inevitability.

And as long as we continue to play this foolish game of "both sides are just as bad," and rely on trusty old ablism to dismiss Jared Lee Loughner as a crackpot—dutifully ignoring that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators; carefully pretending that the existence of people with mental illness who are potentially dangerous somehow absolves us of responsibility for violent rhetoric, as opposed to serving to underline precisely why it's irresponsible—it will be inevitable again.

Democrats are the ones under attack. Democrats who defend the defenseless.

Congressman Danny Davis reportedly received a threatening email following Saturday's shooting rampage in Arizona.

U.S. Rep. Davis, a Democrat from Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune the email was sent to a staffer and read "Danny Davis is next," likely referencing the Saturday shooting. Davis' staff then notified the authorities.

That's not my fault or your fault. WE are not the ones culpable.

Since Rep. Gabriel Giffords (D-AZ) and others were shot in Tucson, AZ this weekend, Sarah Palin has received renewed criticism for a map her PAC posted last year with gun cross-hairs over the districts of several Democrats who voted for health care reform — including Giffords’. Hours after the shooting, Fox News — which employs Palin — aired scenes from a vigil in Phoenix, but when one mourner appeared to began to call out Palin’s incendiary rhetoric, the Fox feed abruptly went to commercial.

Nor is Keith Olberman for calling them out and telling the world who they are and what they stand for.