A crazy man opens fire, fails to kill his target, but kills 6 others and wounds another 12. It includes a Judge, senior people in the community, a young staffer, and a 9 yr old kid born on September 11.
The President delivered a long but delicately positioned invocation - that was part healing, part kick off of his reelection bid, part playing his part as commander in chief. Yes, there that lately cynical old man, old time maverick, John McCain in the corner in the second row. He did not make a statement or a speech. A good thing.
The President said,"She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism, vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted. I want to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America 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."
It also underscored something we all know: civil discourse in an increasingly multi-racial melting pot is way of the past. Tea Party was born out of this uncivil discourse. It is not going away any time soon. Guns, vitriol, Fox News and MSNBC are here to stay. Oklahoma bombing, 9/11, or Tucson have come and gone - we have become just a tad worse, after momentarily uniting for a moment. NExt morning, we wake up, the realities of life hits you - making ends meet, putting food on the table and a roof over your head. If anything comes in between, we get upset. What civility we say....and so it goes. In the end, we just care about us.
