Death Threats Over Health Care - Old Habits New Motive?

I'm not going to delve into the legal details of this situation since it is under FBI investigation - thankfully. I'm merely going to ask a question - the first question that popped into my mind when I learned of this. It is that serious? Is this worth the lives of innocents?

We know that Gregory Lee Guisti was arrested Wednesday in San Francisco for his brazen and unveiled death threats to House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. The ridiculous phone calls were motivated by her support of the health care bill, and in one instance, Guisti stated Pelosi's home address and cautioned that if she wanted to see it again, she would not support the bill.

Coupled with that were the death threats made by Charles Alan Wilson to Democratic Senator Patty Murray, also fueled by his anger towards her support of the fiercely-debated health care bill. According to seattlepi.com, court documents reveal that Wilson made it clear in one of his expletive-laden phone calls, "I want to ... kill you." In another, he charges, "I hope somebody puts a ... bullet between your ... eyes."

Is it that serious? Is this what we've come to? This is not the wild, wild west people. We can't go around threatening to kill people simply because we don't like decisions that are being made. Well, at least that's what I thought. And please, do tell, what is it about the health bill that's warranting the death of government officials who support it? I want to know.

Funny. If Bush's policies on the "War on Terror," and his search for "weapons of mass destruction" were enough to incite some mad man into degenerating into death threats against government officials who supported them, you know what we'd call him, right. A TERRORIST! Plain and simple.

Well, when the speaker of the house receives blatant death threats because of her support of a bill; when a senator is violently threatened because of her stand on a bill proposed by the President of the United States of America, guess what people? Those are acts of domestic terrorism and those people should be prosecuted as such.

It's okay to disagree; it's fine to get upset; it's acceptable to have an opinion completely different from that of the Commander in Chief - that's why this land is called the United States of America. But it is NOT okay to handle it this way. I thought we were past the days of ignorant bigotry that dictated that any person or persons standing in the way of what WE feel is American democracy could be disposed of in the name of "love of country." I thought so ... but I guess old habits die hard.