Let's Honor Little Christina

Green Family/AP

I like to keep this blog light, but sometimes it's hard. Like today, I'm sitting here teary eyed, watching broadcasters cover the funeral of 9-year old Christina Green. Little Christina was the youngest victim in Saturday's shooting in Tucson, Arizona. She sounded like a doll--she was the only girl on her Little League baseball team, she wanted to be the first woman to play in the major leagues and she'd just been elected to her school's student council. That interest in civics is why she was at Saturday's political event.

In the news, broadcasters and those they interview have been looking for someone to blame.  They question whether our country's unsettled political climate was the cause. That perhaps the alleged shooter, 22-year old Jared Loughner, was tired of all the political fighting.

I propose this: let's stop looking for someone else to blame whenever anything goes wrong. Can't we just accept the fact there are some really sick people out there who have no reasonable explanation for their actions. Changes in federal law, or any other thing people are proposing right now, would likely not have stopped this truly demented person.

This country was founded on democracy, and different beliefs, and that's what makes us great.

No matter what side of the political coin you're on, I think we all need to take these words to heart. This is from President Obama's speech yesterday, memorializing the victims.

I want us to live up to her [Christina's] expectations.  I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it.  All of us - we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations.


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.