This weekend the death of a nine-year-old girl, Christina-Taylor Green , in the Arizona Safeway shooting has saddened us all. Her untimely death is a tragedy not just because of her age but because she was billed as the poster child of hope after the 911 massacre. Born on 9/11, 2001, this fresh-faced patriotic youngster was featured in a book, Faces of Hope, which featured photographs of children born on that fateful September day. It's horrible that one vision of hope to come out of 911 has been taken from the world but in another story to come out of this most recent tragedy, comes another.
On Saturday, an unnamed woman confronted the gunman and stopped him from loading another magazine of bullets into his gun. In facing-down the gunman, this woman surely saved lives while risking her own. It is reported that she was wounded and is in hospital.
Her act can be directly linked to the act of defiance in the face of terrorism that was demonstrated by the passengers on the United Airlines Flight 93, where passengers attacked hijackers and diverted the plane from it's intended target. Since 9/11, people have been more aware that only they are able to affect a positive outcome when facing such fanaticism.
It's not only in the faces of the children that entered the world on that terrifying day that we can find hope but in the acts of everyday heroism that have occurred since.
No comments:
Post a Comment