Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Tucson, Arizona Memorial

I got to the gym tonight and was getting ready to hit my least favorite machines when I noticed they were broadcasting the memorial for the Tucson, Arizona shooting. Daniel Hernandez was being introduced as I finished dressing out to hit the treadmill. I could not hear much as the volume was low and the gym was loud, as usual. I never watch this kind of thing, memorials for people who I really don’t know, in a town I am not familiar with. This seemed to me senseless tragedy from the twisted mind of someone mentally unstable.

I went upstairs and hopped on the treadmill, I turned on the Memorial one more time, just to see what Obama would say about everything. I heard the last bit of Governor Jan Brewers speech, Janet Napolitano read from the Old Testament. I was floored, but strangely enough, filled with hope. I listened to our Commander in Chief as he memorialized the dead, one by one. Each one of those six people could have been my dad, grandfather, friend, son or daughter. It’s difficult to breathe when one gets weepy on the treadmill! He mentioned that it is not wise to simply jump to conclusions and that there is no room to point fingers at any one to blame. His speech was moving, and made me feel overwhelmed with hope and I haven’t felt that for awhile.

We are all brothers and sisters on this huge chunk of planet that we share. His speech reminded me that, after all, these people are my family. The victims and the perpetrator, we are all part of the “American Family” as Obama called us. We are not Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or Green, in the end we are people. We have families and friends, wives, husbands, kids. So much goes into the making of a life, we are so not islands. We need each other to lean on, regardless how tough or bad-ass we may think we are. So, to my brothers and sisters in Tucson, I send you great light. To anyone with a tragedy or maybe just rocks in their shoe on the road of life, know that you are a part of a great whole, the American Family.

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