I, too, am America

"I, too, am America"

 from I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes (1933)

January 8, 2011 started out as a typical Saturday for me.  Feed the cats, newspaper and coffee, breakfast with a friend, on duty at the cat shelter, library, errands.  Early afternoon found me driving home while listening to NPR, ever present Starbucks in hand.  The program I was listening to was interrupted to report on the shootings in Tuscon.  My hand began to shake as I turned the volume up.  "Please, no", gently escaped from my lips, as if  willing not to be true what my gut knew was true. 

It is worth declaring here:  I am a bit of governement nerd.  Despite the fact that I am not an Arizonian, Gabrielle Giffords had caught my attention in the last couple of years.  Indeed, she has that effect on many people.  Intelligent, honest, articulate, thoughtful, and committed, her charisma is always evident.  After her performance in the last mid-term elections, my thoughts turned to her possibly running for president in the future. Why?  It is not just because of the adjectives I used to describe her, and, although we agree on many issues, I cannot tell you we agree on all the issues. 

What attracts me to Giffords is her ego-free leadership.  This oxymoronical quality of hers allows her to be a good listener while simultaneously being a good communicater.  Intelligent negotiation is her strength, her sweet spot.  Inherent in negotiation is the art of comprimise.  Do you remember when Americans were good at compromise?  It was our real genius as a country.  America is fascinated by extremism in all its forms, especially in politics.  Since this fateful day, we have debated if the violence of our political rhetoric prompted the shootings in any way.  We are in a struggle for who will speak for America.  However, a more powerful fact remains overlooked.

This grand experiment in democracy, some 223 years in the making, works.  At the Safeway in Tuscon, we saw a cross-section of modern America directly affected by that days' tragic events.  Male and female, young and old, Republican and Democrat, gay and straight, people of color and non, blue collar and white collar, native born and immigrant were all collected in one spot at one time to meet or to work for a person who they feel has spoken for them.  Their message cuts through the polemical speech, and Giffords proudly carries that message to Washington: "I, too, am America.".

Legend has it that as Benjamin Franklin emerged from the Constitutional Convention, a woman asked him what type of government had been created.  "A republic, madam, if you can keep it.", he replied.  I challenge all Americans to get to work on keeping it.  A suggested first step -Move away from the noise and frenzy of extremes, and get to know the Gabrielle Giffordses of our country.  You just might rediscover your sense of hope and wonder.