One Year Anniversary of Tucson Massacre (Jared Lee Loughner) at Rep. Gabby Giffords (AZ-D) Event, Six People Dead including 9 year old Christina Green & 12 Wounded … BTW, “We Can Still Do Better”, Much Better!

ONE YEAR LATER … IS THE CIVIL DISCOURSE IN THE US ANY BETTER OR WORSE … WHY ARE WE NOT DOING BETTER FOR CHRISTINA GREEN?

January 8, 2011 seemed like any other day in Tucson, Arizona. US Representative Gabrielle Giffords was having a meet and greet. Giffords was holding a constituent meeting called “Congress on Your Corner” in the parking lot of a Safeway store and all seemed normal and business as usual. Then it all changed, it violently changed forever.

Today is the one year anniversary of the “Tucson Massacre,” the day that a crazed and deranged  gunman Jared Lee Loughner opened fire upon innocent individuals, killing 8 and wounding twelve.  Among those senselessly killed were Gabe Zimmerman, a Giffords’ staffer, federal Judge John Roll and 9 year old Christina Green, a young girl taken from us all far too soon who was born on September 11, 2001. It is reported that Gabby Giffords will return to Tucson and  will attend the event with her husband, retired Navy captain Mark Kelly. Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, Rabbi Stephanie Aaron and Dr. Peter Rhee, will also participate in Sunday’s event.

One year after a deranged gunman shot the Arizona congresswoman in the head and opened fire on dozens of others at a Tucson grocery store, the congresswoman and other survivors were gathering Sunday to reflect and move forward.

Churches and homes throughout the southern Arizona city will ring bells at 10:11 a.m. MST, the exact time the gunman shot Giffords and methodically moved down a line of people waiting to talk to her during a congressional meet-and-greet on Jan. 8, 2011.

Following the shooting and tragic death of so many, the deranged gunman Jared Lee Loughner indicted on 49 charges in Tuscon Massacre shooting & assassination attempt. However, as predictable as the sun will rise in the East and set in the West, a US District Court Judge Larry A. Burns ruled Jared Lee Loughner mentally incompetent to stand trial for his heinous acts.

What are the lessons learned and what can we take from this tragic event in out history where once again we are witness to the random and senseless killing at the hand of a crazed individual? No one can explain why Jared Lee Loughner did what he did. To explain the insane is insane its own right, EVIL is EVIL. However, to move away from the hateful political rhetoric that occurred following this tragic event might be something to learn from and make our society better as a nation.

Christina Green

During the Tucson Memorial Service/Pep Rally following the senseless murders of so many, President Obama refuted the far Left & MSM assertion of shooting responsibility … that it was caused by Talk radio and conservative speech …“It was not”. Changing the political discourse is one thing, and should occur; however, the acts of Loughner had nothing to do with the acts of an insane gunman.

President Obama called for a greater civil political discourse in America, if not for ourselves, then for our children and Christina Green, the 9 year old girl who was murdered Saturday at the hands of evil. However, if we are trying to make a world that our children would be proud of, wouldn’t it start by not placing a mountain of debt upon them?

And in Christina…in Christina we see all of our children.  So curious, so trusting, so energetic and full of magic.

So deserving of our love.

And so deserving of our good example.  If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let’s make sure it’s worthy of those we have lost.  Let’s make sure it’s not on the usual plane of politics and point scoring and pettiness that drifts away with the next news cycle.

However, much to to dismay of the far LEFT, the liberal MSM and Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, President Barack Obama refuted the inaccurate and purposeful politicization of the LEFT in that the cause of the evil perpetrated by Jared Loughner had nothing to do with politics or civil discourse.

… But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized – at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do – it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.

Scripture tells us that there is evil in the world, and that terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding. In the words of Job, “when I looked for light, then came darkness.” Bad things happen, and we must guard against simple explanations in the aftermath.

For the truth is that none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped those shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind.

So yes, we must examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of violence in the future.

The question is, one year later where are we as a people from what Barack Obama stated at the Memorial service? What has Obama done to abide by his own words? What has Obama done as the leader of the Democrat party to keep his party from over over the top with political rhetoric, whether it is an election season or not? What has the GOP done to do the same? What ever happened to changing the tone and the political discourse just because it is the right thing to do? Questioning parties policies and agenda are one thing, calling Tea Party members Nazi’s and saying Republicans want to kill old people is something quite different.

If our children are so important to us and they represent the future and all that is pure and without hate, what are the masses doing to make them proud? Barack Obama said that Christina is deserving of our good example. Well that is true for all of our children. Mortgaging the future and laying a mountain of debt upon the young is hardly setting a good example.

The lessons learned and lasting memory of the Tucson Massacre cannot be Gabby Giffords efforts to get back into politics and run for her US Representative seat in 2012.  If that is what this is about, how small have we become as a people? Giffords struggles to recuperate, rehabilitate and try and get back to where she once was should be for her family, not politics. I have seen the interviews of Gabby, honestly they are difficult to watch. I hope and pray she is able to make a complete recovery, not because those in politics can use her as a prop for reelection, but so that her husband ad children can have their wife and mom back.

Sadly, its hard to believe that one year later we hear people still blaming the political discourse as the reason why this shooting took place, it was not. It makes one wonder how we move forward when we have a media that keeps poisoning the well. We can change the political discourse, but this shooting has nothing to do with it.

WE THE PEOPLE are bigger than this. Life is a constant battle between “Good & Evil”. When evil occurs, we are certainly not supposed to propagate evil by making matters worse. How we react to evil, what comes from an evil act and we learn from it is the important part. Remember the heroes who saved more from being killed, remember the doctors who acted heroically, remember those that took down the gunman and remember those who passed. Do not let them die in vain. Pettiness is part of the evil. We can do better, namely the so-called Representative of the people who are elected by the people to act responsibly. However, We the People have to do better as well and that means to set a good example and not burden the youth of America by our own selfishness.

There will always be Evil, how we react to that evil and the good we do will echo an eternity.

UPDATE I: Obama calls Giffords on One Year Anniversary of Tucson Massacre, telling her that he and the first lady are still mourning the dead, and keep her and the families of the victims in their daily thoughts and prayers. Really Mr. President, why are you not leading the pack of trying to better?

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