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Christina Taylor Green, 9, was wheeled from the church in a child-size coffin to the mournful strain of bagpipes Thursday, having become the focus for much of the grief that has enveloped this community -- and the nation -- since the shootings that left six dead and 14 injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., the target of the attack.
Christina's clear-eyed gaze, her enthusiasm -- baseball, dance and student council were all passions -- and the randomness in which she was killed made her death particularly wrenching, for grown-ups, President Barack Obama among them, but also for her contemporaries.
As the president noted, she was attending the event at which she was shot Saturday because of a blossoming interest in politics and American democracy.
"I want us to live up to her expectations," Obama said at a memorial service for the victims Wednesday evening at the University of Arizona. "I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it."
The raw emotion was on display inside St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church on Thursday, where 1,500 mourners of all ages were packed in tight, and outside, where there were more mourners, and down the winding road, where hundreds more waited and watched, and across the city.
Some dressed in white, others in baseball uniforms. Some wore angel wings. Others carried teddy bears or bouquets of flowers. The funeral felt almost like a state affair, with rows of politicians, officers in dress uniforms and the bagpipes. It was the biggest service anyone in Tucson could remember.
Toward the end, her father, John Green, rose to speak. He looked out at the crowd. He swallowed. Then, in a scratchy, baritone voice he said her name, slowly: "Christina Taylor Green."
He described a girl who picked blackberries in the summer and went sledding in the winter. Most times, she was the one directing the other kids in their adventures. He told of her and her mother, Roxanne, dressing up "to the nines" and dancing around the house.
Christina was born Sept. 11, 2001. A flag from the World Trade Center, brought to Tucson by representatives of the New York City Fire Department, flew outside the church for the funeral.
Green said his daughter's birthday had given her an understanding of tragedy, and it sparked an interest in civic affairs that brought her to meet Giffords on Saturday.
She had a brother, Dallas, and she loved to swim. She was the hero of Mailey Moser, the 5-year-old little sister of one of her baseball teammates. Mailey would wriggle from her mother's grasp to sneak into the dugout and sit next to Christina.
At Christina's school, Mesa Verde Elementary, where students have been holding difficult discussions about death this week, it was quieter than usual as many students, teachers and administrators left to spend the day at the funeral. Out front was a memorial with messages to Christina.
Suzi Hileman, the neighbor who brought Christina to meet Giffords, is still at the hospital recovering from her gunshot wounds and struggling with feelings of guilt. As soon as Hileman's ventilator was removed for the first time Saturday night, she turned to her husband, Bill, and asked, "What about Christina?" In her foggy, morphine haze, Bill Hileman said, she has screamed out, "Christina! Christina!"
During his eulogy, Green delivered a message, inspired by Christina's life, to everyone who had been touched by her.
"Everybody's going to be OK," he said. "She would want that."
MercuryNews
More news can be read on today News Straits Times, on the 'World' section [couldn't find the link, though...]
Now, this is a sad story. Her birth date has led her to realized about politic, tragedy and hope, even at a such young age. She also featured in the book, Faces of Hope, which has this written as the book's description:
' "A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on."
Carl Sandburg
September 11, 2001, was a tragic day in American history. Lives were taken in an instant, our innocence, lost, and the world was forever changed. But on that same day came proof that life if a circle and that hope always exists, even in the darkest of circumstances: as with every other day, into the world were born new babies, bringings with them joy and love to light up the world.
In this uplifting, yet poignant book, book, Christine Pisera Naman, whose son, Trevor, was born on that fateful day, has gathered together striking black-and-white photos of her child and forty-nine other babies – from each state in the union – who share the same birthday. Gathered from each of the fifty states in the union, these shining faces give hope to our nation as its citizens reflect on the anniversary of September 11.
With simple eloquence, the author shares two messages of hope for each baby's future:
I hope that you find good in all people.
I hope you catch snowflakes on your tongue.
I hope you always have more than you need and share your plenty.
I hope you are someone's dream come true.
Through the smiling photos of these precious babies, you will remember that, even in tragedy, there is always a ray of sunshine to light our way and give us the strength to go boldly and optimistically into the future. With new life, there is always hope.
A portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated the Twin Towers Orphan Fund Charity.'
From Amazon.com
This child has been thought to be a new hope for those who lost it on September 11, 2001. She has a dream too, to be the first woman to play Major Baseball League. She was adventurous, according to those who know her. A leader, even at her young age. Her death is indeed a tragedy!
After nine years since the tragedy, and nine years after she comes to this world, she also became a victim of the world, where after her birth, were thought to be a new hope for a better world...
So, for this child, nothing has change! Or rather, we changed nothing for her...
Has she find good in all people?
Has she catch snowflakes with her tongue?
Has she have more and share her plenty?
Has she became someone's dream come true?
She can't even make her dreams come true, she was not allowed to!
It's easy to blame on the shooter for his obsession with mind control and paranoid over the grammar, but what is the root of the real problems?
You don't go over around carry on a gun and shoot whatever came across just because you hate someone else told you how to use the grammar [even though in this case, I think it's more than that...], there must be a bigger problems behind!
And it takes us not far from the politicos themselves.
Why?
Because they were the people on top. They were the people who said something that everyone else will react to and act towards! What they said will became a policy, and depending on how good actually the policy is, the image of the politicos will also be affect by it.
They will always been a group that will opposed the policy, that's life!
But you have to be clever enough to deal with it. You can't always think of your political image and go on defending your policy, as if they were perfect without any flaws, just so that you can defend your own image and political importance!
And after this incident, I hope that all politicos or politicos wanna be will always look upon their shoulders, not that to see if there are any gunman are aiming at them, but to watch out for what they've done and said. Because not all people can be satisfied, but at least you were sincere in your jobs.
So, make sense on your job, not just to you and all your supporters or 'supporters', but also to all people!
Because, like the words inspired by Christina's life, we all wanna be OK...
After all, we can't just kill another kids dreams, just like Christina...
T/t: you were young, you were bright, you were beautiful, you were everything that anyone could want from a child... You were not supposed to leave this world that way, you were not supposed to leaves this world that day... [Good Charlotte, You're Gone]
MercuryNews
More news can be read on today News Straits Times, on the 'World' section [couldn't find the link, though...]
Now, this is a sad story. Her birth date has led her to realized about politic, tragedy and hope, even at a such young age. She also featured in the book, Faces of Hope, which has this written as the book's description:
' "A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on."
Carl Sandburg
September 11, 2001, was a tragic day in American history. Lives were taken in an instant, our innocence, lost, and the world was forever changed. But on that same day came proof that life if a circle and that hope always exists, even in the darkest of circumstances: as with every other day, into the world were born new babies, bringings with them joy and love to light up the world.
In this uplifting, yet poignant book, book, Christine Pisera Naman, whose son, Trevor, was born on that fateful day, has gathered together striking black-and-white photos of her child and forty-nine other babies – from each state in the union – who share the same birthday. Gathered from each of the fifty states in the union, these shining faces give hope to our nation as its citizens reflect on the anniversary of September 11.
With simple eloquence, the author shares two messages of hope for each baby's future:
I hope that you find good in all people.
I hope you catch snowflakes on your tongue.
I hope you always have more than you need and share your plenty.
I hope you are someone's dream come true.
Through the smiling photos of these precious babies, you will remember that, even in tragedy, there is always a ray of sunshine to light our way and give us the strength to go boldly and optimistically into the future. With new life, there is always hope.
A portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated the Twin Towers Orphan Fund Charity.'
From Amazon.com
This child has been thought to be a new hope for those who lost it on September 11, 2001. She has a dream too, to be the first woman to play Major Baseball League. She was adventurous, according to those who know her. A leader, even at her young age. Her death is indeed a tragedy!
After nine years since the tragedy, and nine years after she comes to this world, she also became a victim of the world, where after her birth, were thought to be a new hope for a better world...
So, for this child, nothing has change! Or rather, we changed nothing for her...
Has she find good in all people?
Has she catch snowflakes with her tongue?
Has she have more and share her plenty?
Has she became someone's dream come true?
She can't even make her dreams come true, she was not allowed to!
It's easy to blame on the shooter for his obsession with mind control and paranoid over the grammar, but what is the root of the real problems?
You don't go over around carry on a gun and shoot whatever came across just because you hate someone else told you how to use the grammar [even though in this case, I think it's more than that...], there must be a bigger problems behind!
And it takes us not far from the politicos themselves.
Why?
Because they were the people on top. They were the people who said something that everyone else will react to and act towards! What they said will became a policy, and depending on how good actually the policy is, the image of the politicos will also be affect by it.
They will always been a group that will opposed the policy, that's life!
But you have to be clever enough to deal with it. You can't always think of your political image and go on defending your policy, as if they were perfect without any flaws, just so that you can defend your own image and political importance!
And after this incident, I hope that all politicos or politicos wanna be will always look upon their shoulders, not that to see if there are any gunman are aiming at them, but to watch out for what they've done and said. Because not all people can be satisfied, but at least you were sincere in your jobs.
So, make sense on your job, not just to you and all your supporters or 'supporters', but also to all people!
Because, like the words inspired by Christina's life, we all wanna be OK...
After all, we can't just kill another kids dreams, just like Christina...
T/t: you were young, you were bright, you were beautiful, you were everything that anyone could want from a child... You were not supposed to leave this world that way, you were not supposed to leaves this world that day... [Good Charlotte, You're Gone]
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trashtalk here, beware, everything you said can and will be used against you~ LOL