On Jan. 8, Jared Lee Loughner entered a supermarket where U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford held a rally. He opened fire on the crowd, injuring 13 people and killing six, including a 9-year-old girl. Gifford, who is thought to have been the target of the attack, was shot in the head.
Perhaps the most heart-breaking incident to have come out of this killing spree is the death of 9-year-old Christina Green, who was born on Sept. 11, 2001. Her memorable birth made the young girl a symbol of inspiration for the country and her tragic death has resounded in the hearts and souls of people all over America.
But a new beacon of hope shines in the face of this devastation.
Gifford has survived the assassination attempt. Although she suffered a bullet to her head, she’s fighting for her life and the doctors are cautiously saying that she will make it.
Now that we have a symbol of new hope, let’s take a look at who stole the old one away.
As information on this horiffic catastrophe began to flow in from numerous news stations, the country rioted. When grievous disasters such as this happen, people look for someone to blame and there was no shortage of them.
At first, I took the side of many, blaming Sarah Palin and the security team for this tragedy. How dare the former governor of Alaska publicly paint a target on Gifford’s back? Why didn’t security take those threats seriously?
Yet, the more time I took to analyze this unspeakable tragedy, the more my opinion changed.
Hindsight is 20/20. Only now do we look back and blame Palin. Only now do we criticize security. Only now do we protest the lack of people who never took those threats against the congresswoman seriously.
The fact of the matter is most of us view threats as empty words rather than a promise of action, until it’s too late. Then we view it as prophesy. How many of us have told a friend, “I’m going to kill ‘so and so’ for making us late to the movies.” But your friend didn’t report you to the cops.
How many emotional teenagers have shouted at their parents, “I hate you. I wish you were dead.” It’s harsh and hurtful, but the mother and father don’t call the police because their child just threatened them. Now, if Moody Mary stabbed them to death in their sleep, everyone will claim that the girl had always wanted mommy and daddy dead.
Just how many daily threats do you think the president gets? How many do senators get? Although they must be monitored, thankfully no one’s acted on them.
We all heard Palin’s comments about Gifford last year. Yet, you didn’t phone in your worries to the congresswoman’s people. Security didn’t do its job? I seem to recall a man throwing a shoe at former President Bush Jr. during a news conference. And there was only a handful of people there as opposed to the supermarket rally in Arizona.
The sad reality is we don’t have a crystal ball. We’re not superheroes with the ability to see the future. I don’t believe in fate. I think we make our own way in this world. But I do know that, until we develop a way to see the future, we will never be able to stop tragedies like this from happening.
So, stop looking for someone to blame. Try to rise above the anger. Try to move past the sadness and see the hope that has persevered through this horrible catastrophe. A woman has survived against all odds. I don’t believe in miracles but if there was ever an example of one, this is it.
