A memorial for the victims of the Tucson shooting spree took place on Jan. 12 and with the sombre ceremony came a voice of sense, a call to cease and desist with political acrimony that came in the wake of the Jan. 8 shooting.
Following the attack in which six died and several others, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, were seriously injured, blame was pinned on Republican Sarah Palin for her perceived role in the shooting. Her political action committee’s web page had issued a map that used crosshairs to identify congressional Democratic districts to target in the next election. The district of Giffords was among those targeted, which liberals took as an opportunity to slam Palin while others took to blaming divisive politics for the tragedy.
Almost obscured in the political wars were the lives and loss of the six victims – including the youngest victim, nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green. She was a girl born on 9/11, a girl who was a good student, a dancer, a gymnast, a swimmer, a girl who had just been elected to her school’s student council and who was at the store where the shooting took place with the hopes of meeting the congresswoman.
In a speech at a memorial for the victims, President Barack Obama pointed to the example of little Christina as someone who was interested in politics and who believed in democracy, who saw public service as something hopeful.
“She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted. I want us to live up to her expectations,” said Obama in his speech.
He made a wise move, cheered for by both people on the left and right sides of the political spectrum, in urging people to rise above partisan attacks and understand, as he said, that the forces that divide them are not as strong as those that unite them.
Is Palin a sharp, savvy and forward-thinking woman with smart things to add to political discourse? Not from the look of things. (Who can forget Saturday Night Live’s Tina Fey’s blistering impersonations of Palin with such gems like “And I can see Russia from my house!”) But why should a random, senseless act of violence and slaughter be blamed on the witless Palin or on rabid political commentators? After all, ultimately, each of us is responsible for our own actions.
Many would like to find scapegoats for tragedies, to make sense out of something that confounds us. We may feel better if we can say, “Ah, this is why this terrible thing happened,” but there’s no sense in this act of a disturbed individual and no solution to be found in pointing fingers and handing out blame to others.
However, if Obama’s words find their mark, maybe politicians of all stripes will take heed of the idealism of a little girl as their reminder of the important role they can serve and the good they can do, and serve their public office with pride and respect rather than using it as a platform from which to sling mud and pot-shots.
