Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: War, Death, and Words

Most of the punditry regulars were off on tangents this morning... so I decided to do the same. Here are some fascinating bits from the editorial pages attached to names that for the most part are not Sunday morning staples.

Tom Diaz looks at how fear of terrorism, which is very rare, trumps fear of all too common gun violence.

The next time you play airport security theater ' remove shoes, display laptop, toss water bottle ' think of the children at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Think of the moviegoers in Aurora, Colo., the citizens in Tucson peaceably assembled to meet with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the worshippers at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., and Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old Chicago girl killed by gunfire days after coming to Washington with her high school band for President Obama's second inauguration. ...

Then ponder this: Americans suffer assaults on their privacy ' they are groped in public and wiretapped en masse ' and surrender their constitutional protections against unwarranted searches in the name of the war on terror, yet they cannot muster the will to protect children from mass murder with military-style weapons. We have spent more than $1 trillion on homeland security since Sept. 11, 2001, yet have withheld annual funding of less than $3 million for research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on gun violence.

Since this is Sunday morning, I'll just say... Amen. This is your Read the Whole Thing read of the morning.

Lincoln Caplan reminds us that it's ridiculous to gut the Voting Rights Act in the while so many of those involved in its birth are still with us.

March 7, 1965, became known as Bloody Sunday in the annals of the civil rights struggle in America. That day, around 500 people set out to march the 54 miles from Selma, Ala., to the state capital in Montgomery in support of what would become the Voting Rights Act. ...

A state trooper told them they were 'an unlawful assembly' and ordered them to disperse. When they did not, they were attacked by about 150 troopers and others who wielded billy clubs and tear gas. Fifty-eight people were treated for injuries at a local hospital, including Representative John Lewis, then 25 and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, for a skull fracture.

Kate Murphy visits with Americans who have have taken to trails and highways to walk across the nation.

Rather than walking to demonstrate religious commitment, many dedicate their cross-country walks to a cause recalling Peace Pilgrim (a k a Mildred Norman Ryder), who walked more than 25,000 miles across America from 1953 to 1981 for world peace. Mr. Stalls, for example, walked to benefit the microlending organization Kiva, while Mr. Ilgunas walked the length of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to draw attention to its impact on the environment. ...

Walks across America tend to end with a baptismal dip in the ocean. 'You have no idea the feeling I had putting my feet in the Atlantic waters,' said Richard Noble, who quit his job as a film festival cashier last year to walk 2,700 miles from San Francisco to Jacksonville Beach, Fla., for gay rights. His trip was fully financed by strangers who gave him money, food and shelter en route, as well as donated online through his blog. 'You can't experience that kind of generosity and be the same person you were before,' he said.

What cause could get you up and moving for the better part of a year? Think about that, then come inside to continue your journey along the backroads of punditry.