What is even more difficult to accept is the fact there has been little to nothing done to stop the thriving gun culture of the USA that allows them to find their way into the hands of drug dealers that kill and wound the finest police officers in the world. There is something very, very wrong with that.
Gabrielle Giffords: An example for all of us (click title to entry - thank you)
I was late going to my birthday brunch on Jan. 8 last year because my youngest daughter wanted to play me some songs on her guitar. Because of that, I hopped in my car about 30 minutes late to meet friends at the just-opened Beyond Bread at the corner of Ina and Oracle roads. I picked up one of my friends along the way, explaining my tardiness and telling her about my two resolutions for 2011: Make more time for girlfriends and accept that my life as a newspaper reporter was over. The birthday brunch was a celebration of new beginnings.
Driving toward the sandwich shop, we discussed how only cool people are born on Jan. 8 (The King, for instance), and the great weather. I was explaining my new teaching assignment when my phone rang. It was about 10:45 a.m. and the other friend we were meeting explained that she was detoured away from Beyond Bread by police surrounding the intersection.
“They’re saying someone was shot,” she said. To which I replied, “A few weeks ago they said there was a bomb threat or something and it turned out to be nothing.” We moved the birthday celebration to another restaurant.Fewer than 5 minutes later, sitting at the stoplight across the street from the newly chosen venue, my phone buzzed. I flipped it open to see a message from a local priest: “There are reports that Gabrielle Giffords has been shot up where you live. Do you know anything?” I handed the phone to my friend, a volunteer with the local Democratic Party. “Oh my God,” she said, “this can’t be right.”...
