Congresswoman Giffords Shot in Tucson, Innocent Child Died

I'd like to open with offering my deepest, sincerest sympathies to the friends and families that lost somebody in yesterday's shooting. Especially the family of Christina Taylor Green.

Christina Taylor Green, Washington Post

Little Christina was born on September 11, 2001, just two months before my own daughter. So for me, her death is two fold. She was one of the 50 miracle babies born during the nightmare that changed the shape of our nation. For her life to be cut short feels like an attack on our survival after that great tragedy. Was that the intent? I doubt it, but that is still how it feels to me.

The second part is the death of a small, innocent child. A child just like my own. Had I not been able to give my daughter a hug and kiss last night I don't know that I would have been able to get up this morning. For me, focusing on the adults that were the focus of the attack will be difficult, because an innocent child was caught in the crossfire.

This attack was focused on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). Was it because she is Jewish? Was it because of her political views? Only time will tell. But one thing we can be fairly certain of is that it was because somebody, or a group of somebodies, fed into this man's pre-existing mental illness.

We have freedom of speech that is only curtailed by using it responsibly. We can't yell fire in a crowded theater, we can't yell bomb in a crowded airport. That is considered inciting a riot, inciting violence. We expect truth in advertising, but we're dodgy about getting it in news.

In this day and age we find information from multiple outlets. Our televisions, radios, computers, telephones, everywhere. Having these multiple outlets also gives us more commentary and less news, however several people don't seem to know the difference between a commentator and a reporter. Commentators are less bound by truth because they are expressing opinion. They exaggerate their commentary in order to fire up their viewers/listeners/readers, but then deny responsibility when someone like Loughner turns out to be one of their fans.

Politicians will exaggerate or misrepresent events in order to fire up their constituents, but then they deny culpability when their fiery speeches lead an unstable person to act in an irrationally violent manner. They pretend they are only speaking to the people that are rational enough to pick about their rhetoric.

I rarely express a political view on my blog, in public even, because of the vitriol and anger that goes with politics in America today. And I won't list off politicians or commentators that I feel are responsible for this. If my readers can't figure it out on their own, then they are either blissfully unaware of the political players (which I envy), or they are blatantly in denial of what they are listening to.

Instead of going through the transcripts of others to see where they may have provoked this disturbed young man's behavior, I hope that politicians and commentators sift through their own transcripts. I know I will. We can't heal our nation while denying that we are spreading the infection ourselves.

I hope that we all reconsider what we say or write. That we all remember that we aren't strictly addressing sane, stable people that are capable of telling that we're being rhetorical. I hope we realize that just because we don't know they are there doesn't mean that they aren't. We have the power to bring down the tone of the dialog, but only if we make the effort. I get to kiss my daughter today. Christina's mother doesn't, and I'll cry for her today because of that.

**In Memorium from ABC's This Week With Christiane Amanpour**

Pator Dorwin Stoddard, 76

John Roll, 63
Chief Federal Judge in Arizona

Phyllis Scheck, 79

Gabriel Zimmerman, 30
Director of Community Outreach for Congressswoman Gabrielle Giffords

Dorthy Murray, 76

Christina Taylor Green, 9