The scraps to our children.

I sat down to blog yesterday, some nonsense about a new purse for Gina and Genevieve's first "time out". I had wit and charm to spare and was ready for my regular silliness. But as the computer loaded up
the story of Rep. Gifford bled across my screen and I found myself with little thought but the tragedy that's taken place. Part of it because Tucson is where Gina's dad lives and we were just there a few weeks ago, part of it because it's a stark reminder that the world my girls have come to life in is not all unicorns and roses - it's just as mean and nasty as it's ever been. I'm a strong believer in what I believe (which I try to keep to myself as often as possible) and to think that someone would shoot me in the head simply based on those beliefs is horrid, it's disturbing. ... it's familiar. We (as a country) spend our time with puffed out chests trying to tell the rest of the world how to behave; to tolerate others who eat, pray and love differently. And here we are manifesting the same actions as they; proving that we really aren't that much better then them; taking away our credibility as as the shining light. We detest the image of the corrupt cop. The man arresting drug dealers while he deals on the side. Are we much different than that? We condemn foreign countries that burn our flag and we call them barbarians, yet we have citizens who burn our own president in effigy. We call "horror" and "sham" upon religious fanatics that bomb their fellow countrymen who do not feel the same, yet we have snipers and bombers targeting abortion doctors and crowds with sharpened pitchforks ready to storm their neighborhood mosques. We say "this country is backwards" as they assassinate their leaders who passed laws they don't agree with, and now we've just done the same. It's a bit bold to claim "we" as, by all accounts, it was an individual effort. But his thoughts were not his own. His examples were not imagined. We turn on the TV and hear pundits rage and figureheads scream, even ignorant politicians out for their own agenda hint at such actions through images and tweets. I'm proud to have been born in this country and I still consider it great, but I lament that it is not the Camelot we sometimes hold it out to be, and I worry about what it will become when my daughters and their peers inherit from us. Looking to history it's events such as this that work as a turning point. ... so which direction do we turn? That is the concern of the day. This act will prove as inspiration. ... but to whom?