There are moments in history that are the hinge of one era for another. The Kennedy assassination ended our innocence and ushered in the sixties with it's revolt and discord at every level of American society. Martin Luther King's assassination ended the Civil Rights era as we know it and brought the movement of passive protest to a conclusion. Robert Kennedy's assassination killed the progressive moment for forty years and really it wasn't until the election of Barack Obama that we saw that type of candidate again. 9/11 ended our innocence again and began the age of national division and of course on that day began the life of Christina Taylor Green. Now, her death could mark the end of another era, the era of American polarization.

Our uneasy truce is holding for now and it was President Obama's clear challenge to live up to Christiana's view of our democracy that is the new cement on our fragile beginning. It would not be historically atypical that the death of a nine year old girl could heal up a country and mark the beginning of a new era. It as if we finally saw the grenades we have been juggling for the last ten years and then we saw their carnage. What more of a symbol do we need for the cost of hate than the death of the hopes and dreams of a nine year old girl. It is beyond words.

So Christina Taylor Green's legacy, her short life, could well go down in history with other people who have altered history by the tragedy of their death. And it is what stops you. You do think again about what you are saying or writing in light of this little girls truth. When Beck and others on the right are calling the Presidents speech a great speech then something has shifted. Maybe we  should put her picture on the floor of the House and Senate and every time someone veers into rancor and vitriol and falls from the people's business they could look at Christina and find their way again. I even watched some of Glenn Beck last night. He was talking about advertising and the way people are manipulated by corporations. Right on Glenn.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man will blast off in February