In his memorial speech last night in Tucson, President Obama reached a moment that no one could have expected and, perhaps, few appreciated. As the camera focused on the parents of young Christina Taylor Green and the president sought to comfort them, he said, "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."
As one who has lost a daughter in her prime of life, I know how hopeless Christina's parents feel in their loss. There is little that anyone can say to fill the empty space so suddenly and violently created. The tokens of Christina's life still fill their home, but now they bring no comfort, only pain. And the traditional words of religious solace ring hollow, even for those with faith. It takes something immediate and transcendental to meet the needs of the moment.
What, after all, can bring some sense of meaning to Christina's violent death at the hand of a madman? Senseless killing, the fact of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, speaks to the randomness of fate and challenges our sense of order and justice. In grief, people often say, "She didn't deserve to die." It's an odd thing to say, as if our deserving was somehow supposed to protect us from harm, but in the moment it seems the only thing we can say to fill the void.
What President Obama offered in meeting the need of the moment was to give Christina's young life, with its growing sense of the country she imagined, a focal point for the whole country. Christina came that Saturday to meet her duly elected representative, to listen and to learn. Representative Giffords wasn't going to spread hatred or fear, wasn't going to harangue those who gathered there with the hot button issues of the day. She was there to listen and to respond, to find common ground and offer the help of her office. Christina would have learned much from that morning's event about how democracy is supposed to function.
What is the meaning of her life? What do we take away from this horror? President Obama's use of the word imagination in that moment was not the imagination of a fantasy, of an America free from fear and danger. The moment last night was the same as that moment when a woman in Philadelphia so long ago asked Franklin, "What have you given us, Mr Franklin?" He replied, "A republic, if you can keep it."
Many of us have lost faith in the America we were once proud to call our own. Perhaps Christina's America can give us renewal and a viable way forward.
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Buddhism makes good use of this capacity of ours, to focus our attention on the things we can do to help make the environment we live in, both physical and mental, a better place.
The imagination is where our actions begin.
I wonder if Christina wrote anything about her vision of America? We don't really know from what we read in the media rather from what I have read in the media, what her exact thoughts were. I am interested that it does not really matter. My feelings is the public is moved not by what her vision for America was, as we don't really know what that is, but instead we are moved by the energy of her childlike openness to a world that is full of positive potential conjoined with a willingness to act.
These two things, positive potentiality and the capacity for action are essency. I think our collective imagination was stirred as we felt the beauty and wisdom present through the invocation of this kind of attitude and call, clarion call, to action.
Fanned & Faved!
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/13/tavis_smiley_on_obamas_arizona_memorial
I'd love to see President Obama live up to this as well. For some reason, I do not think that Christina would approve of how his administration has dealt with our baggage of torture, which has only allowed it to continue.
Peace!
Your anger prevents you from seeing the truth. If you check politifact.com, you will see that Obama has kept a high percentage of his promises. How has he lied?