Earlier today, I completed an article comparing the Planned Parenthood shooting with the August 2012 shooting at the Family Research Council’s headquarters in D.C. If it is not up by later today, hopefully it will be up tomorrow.

The article does not mention Dr. Ben Carson’s comments on the Planned Parenthood shooting so I thought I would comment on them here instead. During an appearance on ABC This Week, Martha Raddatz asked Carson if he agreed with the assessment of Planned Parenthood’s Vicki Cowart that “extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country.” The good doctor replied in this manner:

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of extremism coming from all areas. It’s one of the biggest problems that I think is threatening to tear our country apart. We get into our separate corners and we hate each other; we want to destroy those with whom we disagree.

It comes from both sides. So, you know, there is — there is no saint here in this — in this equation.

But what we really have to start asking ourselves is, what can we do as a nation to rectify this situation?

How can we begin to engage in rational discussion?

You know, all you have to do is go to the — an article on the Internet and go to the comments section; you don’t get five comments down before people start calling each other names and acting like idiots, you know.

What happened to us?

What happened to the civility that used to characterize our society?

Given Dr. Carson’s accustomed role as a healer, I can understand his point of view. Unfortunately, I think he feeds into the premise that the people who made the Planned Parenthood videos or his fellow GOP presidential candidates are extremists who somehow contributed to what occurred at the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs. It didn’t. There is simply no evidence that the person who perpetrated this act was involved in the pro-life movement and even if he was the pro-life movement is no more responsible for the shooting that the LGBT movement was for the Family Research Council shooting despite the fact the perpetrator was a volunteer at a LGBT center. While both perpetrators were mentally disturbed they know right from wrong. The time has come for this country to emphasize individual responsibility over collective guilt.

With regard to political discourse, it is true that reason and passion do not co-exist easily. But it is equally true that debate and discussion are good things and conservatives should never, ever let The Left dictate what we can and cannot debate and discuss.