What a long year this has been. After a bit of a hiatus and family issues, I am ready to commit to this blog weekly...well, at least monthly. I am hoping my four children will grant me the time and patience to complete this task!

Many of you are aware that I am a political wife, with a husband who works tirelessly alongside state and national members of Congress and Senate. No matter what side they align with, I have found one thing true in each of them. They all want what is best for this Country and its people. Our views may all be different and our opinions of how to do right by the people vary, but the underlying fact is that most people who represent their state or districts do so with public service in mind. Many of them stray from that once they are in office or by outside interest groups pushing their own agendas, but for the most part each elected official tries to do what they think is right. In light of what has happened over the weekend in Arizona, I have felt compelled to write as a mother, a wife and a voting member of society.

I have read over the past few days, emails, articles and blogs all which blame one party or the other for this tragedy. I have seen Democrats point fingers at Sarah Palin for the words she used during the last election or the Republican agenda for more gun control. I have seen Republicans blame Democrats for their votes in Health Care and even heard some say that they would personally pull the plug on the young Man who committed this horrible crime when he is convicted. The biggest underlying issue I keep hearing is the blame of the right-winged media or liberal controlled media outlets (depending on who you align with) for spreading each sides hate filled, immoral and valueless rhetoric. Has anyone actually taken a breath to see who is really affected? It came to me last night as I watched the youngest victim, 9 year-old Christina Greene's heartbroken parents, speak with such dignity and grace about the life of their daughter. I am sure they are going to have the worst times ahead of them and will, for the rest of their lives feel the pain of her loss. My heart breaks for them and for her life cut short. I also watched in awe as they did not set blame on anyone for the senseless loss of the amazing life God had given them to raise for 9 years. Am I the only one who saw the beauty inside of their suffering? I do not mean it is beautiful that they are suffering, but for the grace, composure and dignity they have displayed in this. They did not blame a Republican or a Democrat, they did not point fingers at the man who fired the gun, I am sure there will be anger at some point for them, but they did not continue with the hate and anger the rest of the nation is so enthralled with.


Maybe it is their incredible faith in God, maybe it is in their love for each other, or it could just be out or mourning and respect for their beautiful daughter. For me it was a piece of an awakening. This is what happens when we as a society and culture have allowed different values to be placed on all life. I am not talking about this being pro-life or a woman's right's issue, I am talking about a Human Issue for each one of us as stewards of God's earth. We have created and allowed a society that does not value life to its core, including every individual, from womb to death. Our egos are so large that we have decided that is it acceptable for Human beings to decide who plays God. We are a society that has created many weapons with full intention to cause pain or kill other life that we deem not valuable. We use words without thinking of their effect on others who listen and we use them to spew hateful things to people or things we do not agree with. We have not yet learned to take responsibility for our individual free will and what we say, only then, can we fully understand that the most damaging weapon of our time are our words.

This shooting is not directly related to Sarah Palin's choice of words, whether they are used out of context or not, it is related to a society who picks and chooses life in every form, when it has a value and when it does not, then expects is young generations to adhere to values we do not show them. We have a society who deems people on different levels of value, the CEO and the Homeless person, the ways Jewish people view Palestinians, the way Palestinians view Jews. A black child in an impoverished country, a Native American Child on a Reservation in South Dakota, a white child in the Ozarks; all three are equally living without adequate education, food or access to medical care. A child who is killed in the womb because they are not deemed to be valuable members of society or a person who was born with a mental or physical disability not receiving the care and dignity during their life time. Someone who kills animals or creatures for sport and not food. An elderly person who cannot support themselves and is allowed to waste away in a facility or euthanized because they are not whom they once were. Someone who caused damage to the earth for monetary gain or power, not for the good of all its people. People who are pro-choice and for a women's right to choose, but do not want people who are alive now to go to war. People who are pro-life, but will not place a child in their home to raise or who want criminals killed because they are a strain on their tax dollars. Just like the groups that primarily put money towards Gabrielle Giffords election, (Emily's List: under the guise of Planned Parenthood and NARAL). How it is OK for them to speak against something so horrific, when they are also committing atrocities each day to our young generation and not showing them something so simple as an ultra sound to show life at its core? The Republican candidate funded by the NRA and gun rights groups who advocate for less influence on their 2nd amendment rights to bear arms, with a waiting period not long enough to be sure that people with mental illness cannot get them. He wanted to storm the Arizona capitol with guns to take it back, again he didn't mean for someone to die, but did not think about how his words could possible spur something in the mind of a troubled individual. Am I the only one who sees the complete hypocrisy of both sides? My favorite argument as to why this senseless act happened was because she supported Health Care, which a lot of the country disagrees with. Seriously people? This is not about just a Health care vote or the many opposing views as to how it should be implemented. I have been asking the same question since this debate began, one which neither political side has been able to answer. How can we get people to understand that everyone is entitled to health care when we accept life to be valuable at different stages? Why would our young people think that every one as a child of God should be helped at all stages of life when our society allows the most vulnerable humans, animals and parts of the planet to be violated?

What happened on Saturday is horrific, tragic and inexcusable. We cannot blame or point fingers because there are unstable people in society, we cannot say it was someone implied something and this is what caused it. Instead we need to be sure we use our words wisely and show each individual, by example that we value every human life, that their live is of value. If young people feel they have a value and love who they are, they will not want to hurt their neighbors and will understand how to be a steward of the earth. How can we expect a generation of people to grow up using good judgment in a society that says it is acceptable to give and take life without consequence? This is the true circle of life and how it is intended to be. This is what is really going on here...both sides are amazing hypocrites and to say that one individual is responsible for this shooting is using great ignorance and also spewing unnecessary hate...Hate which built up in this man to begin with. We must condone his actions, but we must also as a nation, forgive him and let him heal as a valuable human being. Killing him for his actions is God's choice, not ours, and it makes us as a nation no better in the eyes of God than he was by his actions.

We need to teach younger generations, that they are also entirely responsible for their own behavior and choices, that is why they have free will, but they also need to have the foundations from us to be able to form good choices. We lack that in our society, this young man used terrible choice in his free will. For that there will be severe consequences, but we cannot not continue to play God, we need to raise up as a society, use restraint in situations and live lives that we were blessed to be given; not full of hate and blame, but full or grace and personal responsibility. We always hear our political leader saying that they have to lead by example, yet it is the example their ego's choose, not necessarily what is right by our children. How can we expect our young to rise up and prevail if we fail to change what is not working or put an excuse as to why we allow life to be valued at different levels?

Instead of sending emails, writing articles or listening to radio hosts spew anger in people, we need to be asking people to pray. Pray for Congresswoman Giffords, the innocent lives who were lost, those who lives will forever be altered by physical or emotional injury to this event and for the lost soul of this young man...who at some point could have been any one of our children. Also for forgiveness to heal and accept responsibility for what we as a nation have allowed to exist.

Many Democrats say that being pro-choice helps control the human population of the earth for the betterment of the planet. Many Republicans say that being pro-life helps people to value human beings. The circle is bigger than that and in reality both sides are partially correct, yet so skewed by personal opinion and emotion rather than what is right. Why don't we start by being understanding we are made from God and are called to live in example of his son, Jesus Christ. We have the ability to restrain ourselves and not to overpopulate the earth, we have the ability to educate and to take care of every individual life on this planet. We have the duty to show love and grace to the earth that hosts us, onto the plants, animals and humans inhabit it. You cannot be a stewards of God' planet if you pick and choose how you want to live and then make excuses for it. You have to act by example and live it, teach it and begin with love of self. A generation who loves and understands the value of life will in turn, protect a planet which provides life. There are no if's, and's or but's about it. How can such a great society be so wrong and so egotistical about this? This is why I am not a democrat or a republican, I am a human being and an American who wishes her fellow countrymen and women to awaken in their souls the blessing of life all around on this earth, not just when it is convenient, for monetary or political gain.

May God bless the people affected by this tragedy, may God bless our leaders, nation and its people that they rise up and be the light that we were meant to be in this world. Most of all may God bless everyone and His earth; one who has taken so much and asked so little of us who are meant to care for Her.