my thoughts on last weekend.

The last few days, when reading the news I have seen little else but the Arizona shooting that happened over the weekend.  I knew I wanted to comment about it on my blog but took some time to think about it before saying anything.  Shocking events are hard to digest sometimes.  Most of the articles I've seen have been about political retoric, crazy mugshot guy and his history of creeping people out, politician that died, politician in hospital, 9 year old girl dead, crazy kansas church wanting to protest the funerals (don't even get me started on those weirdos).  Today I read two articles that were quite different.  They were about heroes of the day.  And I wondered, why did I just read these today and not sooner.  Why did the media not focus on these positive moments.  I wanted to share them with you in case you didn't see them.  So you can see that humanity can be good.

It was supposed to be a nice, quick moment. A photograph to help commemorate an important event.

Mary Reed and her daughter, Emma McMahon, were only going to be there for a few minutes.

Emma, a Tucson high-school senior, had been a congressional page for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords over the summer. But things had been so busy, she never got a photograph of herself with the congresswoman. Giffords inspired her, and she wanted the memory.  So, on Saturday morning, the two went to Safeway, where Giffords would be holding a "Congress on Your Corner," a meet-and-greet event. Also along were Mary's husband, Tom McMahon, and son, 13-year-old Owen. They were the second-to-last people in line to meet Giffords. Then everything changed. A gunman approached, shot Giffords in the head and kept on firing.  Mary didn't know exactly what it was when she first heard the noise, but she knew it was loud and bad. She knew she wanted to protect her daughter.  So, Mary pushed Emma up against the brick wall, cradling and covering her with her own body. "There was nowhere to go," she said.  Only when she was shot the first time did she realize what she was protecting her daughter against. "I knew what it was then," Mary said.  That's when she saw a man with a gun, 2 feet away.  "It was terrifying," Reed said. "But I had to save my daughter." Then, Reed was shot again. And shot again. But she didn't move. She couldn't expose Emma.  "Yes, a mama bear," Mary said.  Emma remembers hearing screaming and seeing people fall to the ground, and feeling the warmth of her mother pushing her against the wall.  About 6 feet away, she watched as two men wrestled the man with the gun to the ground, and as a woman grabbed the gun's magazine.  Then, almost as soon as it started, the crime was over. Emma was fine.  "My mom was so amazing," Emma said Monday after school, where she had attended a prayer service for the victims. "I am so grateful and amazed by her."  Reed says recovery will take a while, and remains amazed that none of the bullets or shrapnel hit a vein, artery, organ or bone.  It is not easy to consider yourself fortunate after being shot three times, but Mary does, she said, because her family is safe: "I'm very blessed."

The man had 17 stints in his heart, the arteries, over the years. He was kind of like our bionic man, he just kept going and going and going.  It turns out his heart had one more mission. When a gunman opened fire outside a Tucson grocery store, Dorwan Stoddard was there with his wife Mavy. As soon as they realized that what they were hearing were not fireworks, he threw himself on Mavy and forced her to the ground. Dorwan took three bullets while he was shielding his wife.  Mavy was his childhood sweetheart. A woman Dorwan reunited with and married in his 60's, a wife he cared for until the end. As soon as the shooting stopped, Mavy realized that Dorwan had been shot. She cradled him when he passed. They had maybe ten minutes. At that point I think he realized that she was OK and he left.

These two stories are great example of how much you can love someone.  Their instinct was to cover their family and take the hit. 

Something else I've noticed, while a lot of people are ready and willing to offer up prayers for the victims and their families, I think someone is getting forgotten.  When I read the statement the shooters parents made to the media, i stopped breathing for just a moment.  I hadn't even spent time thinking about what they were probably going through.  These people are completely heartbroken.  While I'm sure they were aware of the fact that their son might have been troubled and needed help, I have no doubt it didn't occur to them that he could be a danger to people.  I don't they could have even conceived of the possibility that he could do something like this.  They lost their son that day.  He might not be dead, but something tells me the son they thought they had is gone. I'm sure they are carrying a lot of guilt and shame with them as well.  How could they not?  When I consider which I'd rather be, the parent of one of the victims or a parent of the shooter, I think I'd chose the first.  As horrible as it is to lose a child in ANY way, discovering they are capable of such violence would seem to be the ultimate pain.  Please say a prayer for these people, I'm sure they need it.

Finally, I'd like to share a video.  Its a video that both my brother and my friend Chris have already shared on facebook.  It is probably the best response I have seen in the media for this event.  Jon Stewart made a wonderful speech at the beginning of his show. 

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-10-2011/arizona-shootings-reaction