In his Tucson speech, President Obama said: “If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let’s make sure it’s worthy of those we have lost. Let’s make sure it’s not on the usual plane of politics and point scoring and pettiness.”
He had his theme firmly in place. It wasn’t incivility that spurred the killer, but that didn’t mean that incivility wasn’t at issue.
He offered 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green’s story to make his case. The story is too sad to bear. She is born on 9/11. She becomes what you hope your child becomes — an innocent believer in the things you hope every 9-year-old believes in.
And so Christina goes to see her congresswoman, seeing, as Obama said, a role model, a person to look up to. She looks to Giffords, he said, “with eyes undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.”
At this point, there couldn’t have been many dry eyes.
“I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it,” Obama told the audience. And we know that everyone in America hopes exactly the same thing.
Read more:
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/13/25821...
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Friday, January 14th 2011 at 2:09AM
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