Saturday January 8th was a day like any other Saturday. I woke up; I drug myself up and down a basketball court in an attempt to relive past attempts at athletic glory; I came home, and took a nap. When I woke up I had a text message that I am still struggling to come to terms with. It was from twitter and it was a link to a breaking news story. I opened it up and learned of the tragic events in Tucson and hoped it was a bad dream. It wasn’t.
Immediately and quite expected the question began to be asked, why? And here is where I am sickened beyond belief in some of my fellow Americans. Rush Limbaugh has come out and stated the shooter has the full support of the Democratic Party, Sarah Palin has yelled blood libel at the journalists who claim her past incendiary remarks may have led to this and I call them both fools. This is not a moment to discuss the political affiliations of the victims, the shooter, or the talking heads on tv fanning the flames of unnecessary rhetoric.
This is first and foremost a moment to remember those who were lost. Six people attending a public event to either support someone they voted for or to give their opinion on how things can better be done. We need to remember those who were wounded, among those congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. To those who claim it was the fault of this party or that party I want you to look at the victims. Republican, democrat, it didn’t matter. The person who is at fault is a deeply troubled man who made a cowardly decision. It’s disrespectful to all who were lost, all who were injured, and to America as a whole. We are better than this. We are better than a group of people who in the midst of a tragedy take the attention off the victims and place it on themselves.
It seems through this whole tragedy that we may have lost our way a bit, but in the words of President Obama when referencing the youngest victim of this tragedy, Christina Taylor Green: "I want America to be as good as she imagined it."
Here’s our first chance America, let’s step up.
1 comment:
Well said.
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