I didn’t think I knew anything about U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords before the horrific shooting at her meetthe public event at a Tucson, Arizona Safeway on January 8. But as I went online this evening to check on her condition, I realized I had been cheering her on in a Fox News segment just the day before the attack.
We keep the television on for background noise a lot at our house. I know, it’s a bad habit, but we do it. I half-listen while I’m paying bills or doing dishes. And once in awhile I hear something that draws me into the living room.
That was the case on Friday, January 7. A congresswoman had just introduced legislation with a revolutionary idea. Following the passage of a measure cutting congressional office budgets by 5%, this woman filed a bill seeking to cut the pay of members of both the House of Representatives and Senate by 5% as well.
I was surprised that this legislator seemed to be doing something that citizens have been asking Congress to do for years, so I paused whatever I was doing and listened for awhile. I was hopeful when I heard this politician recommend that the members of Congress “lead by example,” noting that it had been 77 years since Congress cut its own pay. But I didn’t catch the woman’s name and I went back to whatever I was doing and forgot all about it.
Until I sat down to write my column this week. I wanted to say something that could perhaps calm the rhetoric from my friends and relatives on the “left” and the “right.” I sadly agree with Dr. Jane Orient, a Tucson physician, who wrote an editorial stating that the gunshots are over but “the artillery of blame seems to be just beginning.”
So I went to Congresswoman Gifford’s House of Representatives website. There, along with the heart-wrenching statements about the shooting from her staff and from her husband, U.S. Navy Captain Mark Kelly, is a youtube clip with Gabrielle Giffords forcefully presenting the case to cut congressional salaries. There are others in which Giffords explains her position on border security, education, and health care. I found that I don’t agree with everything she said, but I respect the way she presented her beliefs. She was doing an excellent job for her constituents, for our country.
Her cheerful message to constituents and the media announcing the Jan. 8 “Congress on Your Corner” event is still on the webpage, still inviting the people of Arizona’s 8th Congressional District to meet their congresswoman one-on-one and discuss with her any issue, concern, or problem involving the federal government.
Learning more about the woman so determined to reach out to her constituents doesn’t make what happened worse. But it does make it more personal. I now feel like I know the bright and witty young woman who really did work across party lines.
My heart was already breaking for the family of 9-year-old Christina Green, who died because she was interested in how government works. The little girl reminded me of so many kids in our community. Kids who attended county board meetings to ask for resolutions to support tree planting. Kids who sat through city council meetings to get approval for a skate park. My own teenaged son who attended a West End annual meeting to get extra credit in Mrs. Brandt’s government studies class. I cannot even begin to imagine the pain Christina Green’s family, and the families of the other victims, are feeling now.
But as his wife has already done, Captain Mark Kelly inspires us in this time of tragedy. In a press release, Captain Kelly wrote, “Many of you have offered help. There is little that we can do but pray for those who are struggling. If you are inspired to make a positive gesture, consider two organizations that Gabby has long valued and supported: Tucson’s Community Food Bank and the American Red Cross.”
We can follow that lead. We can reach out to others who are struggling. We can get involved and pay attention to our local, regional, and national government. We can speak civilly and kindly to one another. We can do as Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has done— we can remember that we are all Americans and we can work together for the greater good. And yes, we can pray.
Peace is not something you
wish for. It’s something you
make, something you do,
something you are, and
something you give away.
Robert Fulghum
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