Sunday.8 January, 2012

One Year Ago  ............. Today

Christina Taylor Green, 9, was an aspiring politician and wanted to be the first woman to play major league baseball. Born on 9/11/2001, Green had been featured in the book Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11. The girl who wanted to grow up to help others was attending the meeting with a neighbor.



TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — It's been a year since that bloody Tucson morning — a year of reflecting on lives shattered, of struggling with flashbacks and nightmares, of replaying the what-ifs before the deadly rampage that shocked a nation. And in the middle of it: one woman, Gabrielle Giffords, forging one of the most grueling journeys back of all.


One year after a deranged gunman shot the Arizona congresswoman in the head and opened fire on dozens of others at a Tucson grocery store, the congresswoman and other survivors were gathering Sunday to reflect and move forward.


Churches and homes throughout the southern Arizona city will ring bells at 10:11 a.m. MST, the exact time the gunman shot Giffords and methodically moved down a line of people waiting to talk to her during a congressional meet-and-greet on Jan. 8, 2011.


Six people were killed, including a 9-year-old girl born on 9/11 and a federal judge. Thirteen others were shot, including Giffords.

Grief over Green’s slaying turns into action

By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports

TUCSON, Ariz. – Some day, maybe soon, maybe not for a long while, Christina-Taylor Green’s family will forget the sound of her voice, the smell of her hair, the strength of her hug. Details fade over time. They want those parts for themselves. The rest, though? The spirit and the ideals and the energy and the innocence? Those are for the world to share.

Christina has been gone for two months. She was born on 9/11 and died after being shot in the chest during the massacre that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, whom Christina wanted to meet. She was a chatty 9-year-old, a good student, a baseball player, a friend, a little sister, a daughter, nobody’s and everybody’s. Now she’s gone, and they’re all trying to figure out life without her.

John is Christina’s father. He is also a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and if not for his connections with Major League Baseball, the Chicago White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks might not have played a spring training game here Monday. They came to remember Christina, to raise money on her behalf, and the traffic backed up along East Ajo Way even as the ceremonial first pitches approached at 1 p.m.

In front of the mound for one was Dallas Green. He is Christina’s brother. He threw a strike to White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Dallas and Christina’s mom, Roxanne, cheered. So did everyone else at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium. Something about Christina resonated with the city. The photos of her smiling, the stories of her giving, the senselessness of a stolen life.

Turns out it’s not just the Greens who are learning how to handle it.

All of Tucson is.

Bens Bells of Tucson

Ben Maré Packard was just two when he died suddenly in 2002. His family, seeking ways to deal with the loss, began hand-crafting these bells, and the following year, on the anniversary of Ben's death, hundreds of the bells were randomly distributed around Tucson, in parks, on bike paths and hung from trees. The windchimes are colorful ceramic pieces, such as butterflies, tied together with thong and ending in a metal bell. The kindness of strangers, as well as friends, had helped the family cope with their loss, and the bells were designed to pass that kindness on to others. The success of the project was amazing. Those who found the bells related their own stories of grief and healing, and it became front page news in the Arizona Daily Star. Before long, hundreds of individuals had volunteered to make and distribute the bells.

Today, the Ben's Bells Project is a non-profit organization located near the University of Arizona in downtown Tucson. The organization publicly recognizes community members who are nominated for "spreading kindness on a daily basis". Nominations are reviewed by a selection committee, and one "bellee" is announced to the public each week. Recipients receive a Ben's Bell and a gift pack. In addition, more than a thousand ceramic bells are distributed by volunteers two times each year, once in March to commemorate Ben's death, and once in September. Since its founding, Ben's Bells has distributed nearly 20,000 of the handmade ceramics. The Executive Director is Ben's mom, Jeannette Maré.

A printed card attached to each bell reminds the finder to "remember to spread kindness", and quotes Henry James, "Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind." The card on the bells distributed Thursday added, "We hang this bell in memory of those who died, in honor of those who were injured, and for all of us who live in and love this community."

Ben's Bells at the Site of the Tucson Shootings

Thursday morning dawned a chilly 45 degrees at the Safeway shopping center in northwest Tucson on January 13, 2011. Five days earlier, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had hosted an event called 'Congress on Your Corner' here, an ongoing program to meet and discuss issues with constituents. The community event collapsed into chaos as a gunman opened fire, killing six and critically wounding Rep. Giffords and others.

President Obama addressed a memorial service at the University's McKale Center on Wednesday night, and before dawn the next morning, according to an article by Kimberly Matas in the Arizona Daily Star on Friday, January 14, more than 500 volunteers gathered at the Ben's Bells studio. Despite the chilly air and predawn darkness, these volunteers spread around Tucson, hanging 1,400 Ben's Bells in an effort to mitigate the community's grief.

Three hundred of these bells were hung in the mesquite trees around the parking lot at the site of the shootings. Police tape still cordoned off much of the lot, and television trucks were still present, as were sheriff's deputies and FBI agents, some of whom helped hang the bells, according to the article in the Arizona Daily Star.

By noon, the lunch crowd at Beyond Bread was overflowing, the sky was a cloudless cerulean and the temperature had climbed to 70 degrees. Almost all of the ceramic bells had been discovered and taken, but the warm breeze occasionally stirred the windchime tinkling of a hidden bell. My wife and I had just finished lunch, and were driving out of the parking lot when she spotted a bell high overhead. I stopped the car and she got out, staring helplessly at the bell which was well out of reach. She opened the door to get back in when a stranger pulled up, a young lady and her 10-year old son. She drove her car directly beneath the bell, got out, climbed onto the car's hood and retrieved the bell. Back on the ground, she handed the bell to my astonished wife. "This one's for you", she said, getting back in her car and driving away. My wife held the bell close, and we both realized this random act of kindness was now ours to pass on.