President
Obama spoke with power and eloquence at the public memorial service for the victims
of last weekend's shootings in Arizona. He said, " I believe we can be better. Those who died here, those who saved lives
here, they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the
world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and
goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those
that unite us ."
As he grieved with and consoled thousands in person at the University of Arizona's McKale Center in Tuscon, the president was of course also reaching out to the entire nation, helping with the healing process, and framing this terrible tragedy as the teaching moment it must be.
The profoundly sad and sickening irony here is that as Barack Obama reaches within himself for the right thoughts and words to convey, he is himself the ultimate lightning rod for the very kind of blind rage and moral bankruptcy that he and we must now make a last stand against, before our societal order spins any further out of control.
Nineteen innocent human beings were shot in this latest reminder of just how far gone we already are. The specific target was Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. While she miraculously survived a gunshot wound to the head, six other precious lives were taken that day, including that of 9-year old Christina Taylor Green, born on 9/11/2001. Christina had recently been elected to her school's student council. One can only imagine the dreams and aspirations swirling through her head as she set off with a neighbor to meet her local congresswoman in person.
As always happens in the wake of such incidents, the individuals, organizations and business interests who continue to stand in the way of effective gun control will keep saying that "people kill people" like Christina Green, not guns. They'll keep pointing to the madness of Christina's murderer, Jared Lee Loughner, dismissing the madness of American gun & ammunition purchase laws; dismissing any responsibility to be taken here by power-seekers who boldly and consistently use provocative, violent rhetoric to recruit and bond with the maddest and most alienated among us.
And so a turning point has presented itself once again for we strong, sane, compassionate people who believe in Peace, Love & Understanding as guiding principles for our society, while also believing in the constitutional rights of citizens to lawfully own registered guns, and in the constitutional rights of citizens to freedom of speech. Are we going to let the madness continue? Or are we now, finally, going to unite in active opposition to the out of control extremes and gross distortions that those constitutional rights have been taken and twisted into by evil alliances of political, media and business interests?
RESOLVED: If we, the vast majority of Americans with firm, moral family values agree that it's okay for those who meet strict sanity and safety requirements to buy a limited variety of guns and ammunition, then that's going to have be good enough. If we agree that public political discourse and debate cannot be allowed to descend into hate-mongering and incitement to violence, than that is the way it is going to be, for all parties, politicians, organizations and media.
We, the vast majority, are done with the viral mistrust, hostility and violence that have infected the American "body politic" in recent years. We are going to organize and peacefully, systematically pull power, money and public platforms away from all who insist on spreading the virus, or allowing the spread of the virus, any further.
Christina Taylor Green's grief-stricken mother speaks for us all.
"I just want her memory to live on, she's a face of hope, a face of change. Stop the violence, stop the hatred."
