Too Familiar

I've been thinking about the nine year-old girl killed on Saturday in the shooting rampage in Tuscon. Christina Taylor Greene sounded eerily familiar. She was interested in politics. She wanted to talk to her Congresswoman. She came to a meet and greet event probably with some butterflies in her stomach at the thought that she would have contact with a decision maker from her home state who might listen to what is on her mind as she observed her country through her child eyes.

Instead, this girl born on September 11, 2001, was among the body count of a horrible assault on democracy. A life born on a day of terrorism; a life taken by an act of terrorism.

The reason I think about this girl is that I know her. Not literally, but in a figurative sense. Because I was a Christina Taylor Greene. At her age, I was stuffing envelopes, making phone calls and going door-to-door campaigning for political candidates. Some of those candidates were my brothers. Politics were a part of my growing up. I met a number of presidential hopefuls passing through New Hampshire, some of whom did their meet and greets in the front room of our house. So a young girl like Christina is all-too-familiar to me. A girl who wanted to talk to the politicians and tell them in simple terms what she thought of our policies (yes, at nine, I had political opinions and I wanted them to be known!)

Meanwhile, the young man being credited with saving Rep. Giffords life is her intern, Daniel Hernandez. Only five days on the job, Hernandez came running from around a corner when he heard somebody yell, "Gun!" and heard the shots. He ran to the aid of the Congresswoman, and kept pressure on her head wounds with his hands and frocks provided by the meat department at the Safeway. He doesn't consider himself a hero, and not surprisingly, he says this is not an experience he ever wants to repeat. What more have we learned about Daniel? Well, besides the obvious that he is Latino... it turns out that Daniel is also an openly gay man. Some might wonder why this matters. It doesn't really. Except in the climate that Arizona has created with its "jail the immigrants" attitude, and the equal amount of hatred that the right has aimed at LGBT people across this country, knowing Daniel's labels is confirmation (again!) that heroes come in all ethnic backgrounds and orientations. We are all Americans. Please treat us as such.