RSS 2.0 FeedJanuary 13, 2011, Weekly editorial
One giant step back from the dream
Arizona Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the act of performing that most democratic of functions, reaching out to her constituents to find out what they wanted her, as their public servant, to do. In that act, an unstable young man also took the lives of other citizens including a young girl born on September 11, who had been recently elected to student government and who wanted to make a difference. How terribly sad that is!
This weekend, we celebrate the birthday of another victim of assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose life ended only a short time after he visited Long Island and spoke at a local school. Ironically, he helped found the non-violent civil rights movement, inspired by the teaching and success of Ghandi. How might our history have been different if he had survived?
Fortunately, there were others who took up the cause of social justice, many people in many ways, big and small, helping bring our country closer to the dream Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the dream of a country where his children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the "content of their character".
We can not let assassins keep us from marching forward as a great democracy.
In another inspiring story of democratic action, a Long Island nurse, whose son was injured and husband killed by a deranged man in a Long Island Rail Road car, at first lobbied for gun control and then decided to run for Congress herself. Representative Carolyn McCarthy has served for several terms and had some good results, but her battle is far from won.
Perhaps now that Congress has seen one of their own targeted, they will work harder to make us all safer from gun violence. Certainly, if they begin to hide from contact with their constituents, our democratic republic will be in danger.
