I thank you Gabby for your courage and your grace, you made me cry last night, but today you restored my smile through your smile.

by Teddy Fikre  written:  Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

These were the piercing sounds that rang through Tucson on a crisp January morning outside a Safeway parking lot.  These sounds would riddle the bodies of 20 people, cease the lives of 6, and echoed through the Gabby Gifford’s head.  I am sure that the unending BANGS were the last thing that Gabby heard before she too succumbed to a bullet from a menacing gun held by a lunatic.  What we did not know at the time was that the assassin—by the name of Jared Lee Loughner—was a crazed right wing lunatic who had no reason to go on a killing spree other than to seek vengeance from the death of innocent victims.

Initially, the reports were grim.  Fox News and MSNBC and countless other media outlets—in a rush to get a scoop—reported that Gabby Gifford was killed at the scene.  In the age of twitter and Facebook, the truth is usually the first victim at a murder scene.  However, the news outlets underestimated the resilience and fortitude of this giant lady named Gabby Gifford.  She refused to succumb to the hatred of Jared Lee Loughner; she clung on to life against all odds and refused to go silently into the night.  Gabby Gifford—the moment she decided to cling to life—became an instant icon of courage in the face of hatred.

I will never understand the senseless violence that happens continuously in America.  The biggest heroes of my life, Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Patrice Lumumba, Che Guevara, and countless others, were all gunned down in their prime—before they were able to complete their life mission.  And in their death, humanity died collectively, we were deprived of their essence and the grace they were set to bestow upon us.  I don’t understand what makes a man wake up in the morning and take up arms against his fellow citizen.   What makes him want to end life instead of giving life?  Each time our brothers and sisters perish, we too are left shattered into pieces, each bullet tearing us into small isotopes of blood stains which ultimately ends up straining our collective conscience.  What is it that makes one determined to kill instead of seeing that we are all bonded by our common humanity and that our lives and our well being is dependent on the greater good of the society?

Look about you in any city, whether in DC or New York, in Mogadishu or Addis, you will find blood stained concretes that serve as an homage to a murdered soul.  On a daily basis, thousands upon thousands of our fellow countrymen are killed by guns.  The murder rate always goes up it seems and each killing serves as a ratings bonanza for the local news.  We are living a reality show and we are our own villains; by our indifference and silence, we are the main abettors of slaughterers in our midst.  We offer a collective sigh when people die on a daily basis, then forget about them the next moment to go back to watching Oprah.  Instead of marshaling our might to outlaw machine guns, we instead prefer to rant about the next American Idol.  Eventually though, our indifference will catch up to us, we or one of our own will end up being fodder for the next news cycle—gunned down while walking to Safeway.

This is why Gabby Gifford was such a beacon of hope.  Her beacon seared in our minds that there is a cost to our inaction.  Her refusal to die gave life to a logical reasoning that life is valuable only at conception; instead we were faced with the truth that life is valuable all the way through the life cycle.  This is a lesson that right wing zealots don’t get, they rant on about abortions but never raise a peep when living men and women are aborted by senseless violence.  Gabby—through her grace and courage—gave the victims of gun violence a voice and a blessing through her struggles.  She refused to cede ground; day and night she rehabbed her speech and her steps and in the process started to step out of dark lit corners.

The climax came last night when sadly she attended her last State of the Union event.  What a fitting end, there was Gabby clutching the arms of her Republican counterpart in the Senate and refusing to bend to senseless violence.  Jared took part of her sight, but not her smile.  Jared took her ability to walk without assistance but not her voice.  Jared robbed her of her congressional seat but not her constitution.  Gabby is to strong, too determined, to ever let a manic murderer get the best of her.  I thank you Gabby for your courage and your grace, you made me cry last night, but today you restored my smile through your smile.  God bless you Gabby and God bless the United States.  Peace!

“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

[click to see Gabby]

[click to go to Gabby's website]

Author

Teddy Fikre

[click to view profile]

[click pic to follow us on twitter or follow us @browncondor]

We would love to hear your comments/feedback.  Also, share this on Facebook, tweet it on twitter, or print it and give it to your grandmother.  If you would like to follow us on Twitter, you can do so @browncondor

To get in touch with us, send email to info@browncondor.com