Christina Taylor Green, the dark-eyed, energetic granddaughter of former Phillies manager Dallas Green, existed in the brief interlude between two great American tragedies.
Born just hours after the horrific attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the 9-year-old was killed Saturday in the Arizona massacre in which a congresswoman was critically injured and five others, including a federal judge, were slain.
"She liked having that birthday," her mother, Roxanna, recalled in a Sunday telephone interview. "She thought it was a holiday when she was little. We had to set her straight."...
The youngest of two children of Green's son, John, she was among 20 people shot by a lone gunman at a Tucson shopping-center meeting sponsored by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D., Ariz.).
Giffords is in critical condition but expected to survive.
The third grader at Mesa Verde Elementary School had gone to the event with a neighbor because she had recently been elected to the student council and already had an interest in politics, authorities said. The neighbor was shot four times but survived.
"It seemed like such a good idea," her mother said. "We never imagined anything like this could happen."When the neighbor took the young girl to witness our government in action, I'm pretty sure this isn't what she had in mind. While it may be tempting to point fingers in the aftermath of this tragedy, I don't think that's particularly fair.
The fact is, what has come to pass for "political discourse" these days has become increasingly inflammatory and divisive, and an incident like this was almost inevitable in response. It's not particularly relevant which side of the aisle was affected by the attack--what's clear is that we need to get our act together and stop vilifying each other, or else.
This incident is a tragic and sobering wake-up call. Let's hope we learn the right lesson from it, rather than using this as an excuse to ramp up the political rhetoric.
[Philadelphia Inquirer]
No comments:
Post a Comment