Christina is the nine year old that was killed in Arizona.
She was born on September 11th, 2001. In the weeks following that terrible day people started to actually see one another again. Our neighbors were no longer just strangers we occasionally said hello to but fellow travelers, trying to find our way in this madness. Together.
Putting the obvious details of the great tragedy this past weekend aside for the moment, in an attempt to express and process what I've been feeling I'm going to go against my heart and try to make this post as apolitical as I possibly can. I wouldn't be honest though if I said these feelings didn't immediately start with anger.
After I saw the headlines I initially thought "Democratic Congresswoman, Arizona, gun violence....anti-government, homegrown terrorist". I began to piece it all together in my mind, a young white kid, brainwashed by what he sees and hears on a daily basis...his soul polluted by the perpetual onslaught of misinformation. Basically Fox News and its surrounding satellites' mouth vomit manifested in the worst possible way imaginable. It didn't take long for the media to dig up Palin's cross hairs graphic and my mind was off to the races. In my soul I felt (and perhaps still do) that this monster was influenced by an environment created by all the dangerous personalities that continue to stain our political discourse and fool impressionable people day in and day out. Perhaps that all holds some weight, perhaps it doesn't. I truly believe we'll never know for sure.
I inevitably began to polish the edges of my anger, sharpen it into a cohesive thought rather a bunch of knee jerk reactions and jot down a bunch of notes that would become a pretty venomous, anti-right wing blog post. I deleted the post.
Yesterday my train of thought shifted course, perhaps the change of its direction was caused by the momentum of the constant MSNBC muzak that's been in my ears. Combine that with the difficult task of following the constantly evolving details that make up this story on the net, I decided that maybe the talking heads and peace seeking politicians are right, maybe this is a time to put personal ideologies aside, stop pointing fingers and rally behind Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims. Ultimately that's the necessary and noble thing to do.
In the months ahead the new found politeness will wear off and there will no doubt be debates on gun control and the tone of political disagreements. There will be new headlines and fresh arguments, new pieces to the puzzle that is why this happened in the first place. (Rush Limbaugh is actually opening his fat, worthless mouth right now as I type this, spitting some nonsensical garbage about the murderer having "full support of the Democratic Party")
But what I know for sure, without a shadow of a single doubt is simply this. It takes days of monstrous evil like 9/11/2001 and 1/8/2011 to bring out the best of us, even if it's for a short time.
Take Daniel Hernandez Jr. for example. Gabrielle Giffords may not be holding a thumbs up right now if it wasn't for her homosexual, Mexican-American intern. Yes a gay Mexican, in a country that doesn't allow him to marry and a state that could arrest him for simply being what he is, he saved a life.
Another example, Dorwin Stoddard, a 76 year old man not particularly involved in politics that was just passing through to tell Giffords what a good job she was doing. He and his wife were trapped in the madman's crossfire when Dorwin used his own body to shield the bullets from hitting the love of his life. She is still here to tell the story.
Then there's Rep. Giffords herself or "Gabby" (what her many friends seem to be calling her,) fighting for life right now in a hospital. Last Friday I didn't know who she was outside of the fact that she was one of the names on Palin's hit list. Now I've heard endless good things about her, read up on her and have discovered why she is such a loved politician in her state. Not to the mention the doctors and nurses working on Giffords around the clock, unsung heroes that will surely be forgotten about in the long run.
And while no innocent life is more precious then the next, the victim that seems to be having the most adverse affect on me is Christina. A nine year old politician in the making, with big brown eyes and chubby cheeks. Her parents have stated that she already had her college picked out and career path chosen, a career that she hoped would eventually involve helping those less fortunate then she.
Perhaps it's because I'm pushing thirty now and look to have children of my own in the near future that this little girl's death is haunting me more so then the others. Every time Jared Lee Loughner's deranged, smiling mug shot is flashed on the television screen, I feel a swelling of rapid fire emotions that seemingly lead all to one place. That place is the part of my psyche that can't help but to imagine a world with my children in it. Perhaps that's selfish of me in a way, maybe this isn't coming off as eloquent as I had hoped but it all circles back to my original sentiment.
Christina's way too short eleven years on this planet is now book ended by two American tragedies.
Never mind the confused weak-minded individuals that targeted all Muslims or the politics and subsequent wars that followed, in the time after 9/11, Americans from all walks of life came together. Perhaps it was short lived but there was a moment there that I felt safe in my fellow countryman's hands. Christina never knew the world before the towers dropped, just like she won't know the world we're living in now and in some strange way that's a good thing.
But our kids will know this world. I can only hope that we fix what's obviously broken, that we start talking a bit nicer to each other, or at least give it our best effort to do so. That we stop questioning where our President was born, or hating on someone because of their political ideology or religion or race or because of who they share their bed with at the end of the day.
These are basic principles that we should all strive to build our lives on but for some perplexing, mysterious reason only begin to really do so when a lunatic brings them back to light.
Sorry for this small epilogue of sorts but I can't not speak about this. As I finished up this blog post I had CNN on in the background. Wolf Blitzer is reporting that Arizona is passing legislation to keep protests away from Christina's funeral on Thursday.
I'm sorry...protesters? Apparently some church in Kansas, one that makes it their duty to protest at the funerals of AIDS victims and fallen soldiers are now going to protest this innocent little girl's funeral. I'm sorry, keeping them 300 feet away from the funeral site is not enough for me. Freedom of assembly my ass, there is no conceivable reason in the known universe that these pieces of shit should be picketing at this funeral. They should be thrown in a cell at first sight. How can we possibly try to keep rational thoughts and have civil debates when there are people like the ones that make up this church still breathing the same air as decent human beings.Perhaps this rant renders my post irrelevant now but oh well, in my eyes these protesters are as evil as Loughner himself, and their protest is just as damaging as an assassin's glock.
No comments:
Post a Comment