I wanted to create a special place where folks could leave messages of hope and inspiration, caring and love for those who were violently wounded and deliberately killed this past Saturday, January 8th in Tucson, Arizona during Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford’s TownHall meeting.
Please visit www.marymac.info/arizona to leave your comments and thoughts. And please share with your friends.
The attempted murder of Tucson, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford as well as the murder of six others, including 9 year-old Christina Green, shocked Americans this weekend. A deranged gunman started shooting into a crowd at a outdoor gathering with Congresswoman Gifford’s constituents. She invited them to learn about legislation in Washington and to hear their concerns about their government and its policy.
As I am no stranger to homicide and how it affects those who survive the murder victim, I wanted to share this video between Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly and Mr. John Green, the father of young Christina Green. Little Christina was attending the town hall gathering with a neighbor because she wanted to learn more about the political process and listen to her first Congress member, having been elected to her school’s student council.
Ironically, little Christina was born on September 11, 2001. I find it amazing that her life began on a day in our history when thousands were killed by terrorists, and she lost her life violently as well.
My condolences to her family and that of all the other victims of Saturday’s senseless shooting.
Please share your comments below.
As I left my local Chick-Fil-A today carrying my favorite Ice Dream with chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and, yes a cherry – way too good – I stopped in my tracks as my eye diverted to the cover of Continue reading Immigrant Found Guilty in 2001 Chandra Levy Murder
I don’t know that anyone will ever be able to explain, at least to my satisfaction, how one individual can deliberately take the lives of several individuals causing such havoc in the lives of so many families.
I remember one of the first instances where this affected my life was when the DeFeo family in Amityville, Long Island were all killed by their brother. From this tragedy came the movie, “The Amityville Horror.”
Having been raised on Long Island, two of the children attended my same high school at the time and it stunned our student body. How could one brother decide to kill all his family members? How could it be that our fellow students wouldn’t be returning to school. And while I wasn’t extremely close to them, I did know them enough to say hello as we walked down the hall and engage in conversation.
After I became active in crime victims’ work, I remember another family whose daughter’s boyfriend killed her and then killed himself. What that family always struggled with was the inability to have someone take responsibility for her murder. They couldn’t complete the process of having justice served.
In multiple murders, as with the Long Island Railroad Massacre that killed so many including Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy’s husband, while severely injuring her son, Kevin, there are so many families affected by one person’s sole action.
This is not something you easily recover from. As in the case of the nursing home tragedy I am hearing about today in North Carolina, those families expected their loved one’s to die through natural means, but instead they have been catapulted into a national media event, as well as the shock of a sudden, violent death.
Whether the cause is fear, anxiety and worry of financial situations, or hate, anger and revenge toward another person, the ramifications of multiple deaths or murder/suicide is so long lasting and so filled with unanswerable questions that it wreaks havoc, lingering in the minds of their families’ minds which no one should have to endure.
On a very busy day in January, working from home, I found myself with binoculars in hand watching an airliner floating in the Hudson River. Having a ring-side seat to such an event is something you don’t easily forget. Add to that a friend was traveling to Miami that day and as I didn’t have his flight number, naturally I felt a little panicked, until that blessed text came in that he was safe and actually scheduled to be on a private jet instead.
I remember when members of the media were interviewing the survivors who would speak with them, each was asked how they felt they had made it out safely and every single one of them thanked or acknowledged that it was God who pulled them through. Every one.
It will never cease to amaze me how we always seem to acknowledge and call on Him when we’re in a frightening place, but rarely have time for him otherwise. Someone once asked me why I thought we tend to call out to Him in crisis, and I told them I felt it was because inherently we know where we came from, and whose we belong to.
So when the crew was acknowledged at the SuperBowl I was quite pleased. Because we don’t have many ‘real’ heroes amongst us any longer, it was wonderful that they were praised for their heroism, especially the captain whose skill and calmness of mind delivered all those men and women back safely into the arms of those whom they love.
And as for Jennifer Hudson…what can I possible say except that I welled up with tears as I stood at attention while she sang. I remember very clearly after my stepdaughter was murdered what was going on inside just a few months afterwards. It was a chaotic time, a time of numbness and confusion and trying to keep it all together. It was a very surreal time and you are unsure of your footing, just trying to function and moving one step in front of the other.
Her great faith will undoubtedly help her during this most difficult time in her life. To lose three family members at once is hard enough…to lose them all to murder in an entirely different thing.
Her performance was flawless and her composure amazing. I held my breath for her. And I pray that she will feel all that love that surrounded her that day when the bubble that’s cushioning her starts to ease.
