Tucson shooting can be a new beginning

I was deeply troubled by the Jan. 8 attack in Tucson, where Representative Gabrielle Giffords and a number of bystanders were shot. My heart aches for all the victims, especially the family of Christina Green, who was 9. As a parent of small children, my heart aches for the agony of the Green family. And, like many of you, I am trying to make sense of this random and horrible act of violence. I have prayed for wisdom and understanding.

After the shooting in Tucson, Speaker of the House John Boehner said, “An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve.” I suggest we take Speaker Boehner’s idea one step further: not only was this an attack on all who serve, it was an attack on all of us. I have come to believe is that the shooting is an attack both on the individuals who happened to be at Safeway that Saturday morning, and an attack on the rest of us. I believe that, like the attack on Sept. 11, 2001, any attack on innocents, any terrorist attack, is an attack on our larger society. A crazy man did not shoot at me on that Saturday, but I was among those attacked when a disturbed young man started shooting.

How can this be? I come to this belief because of something I know about God. I have a deep belief that we humans are all brothers and sisters, children of a loving God who created us. This loving God with whom I connect with through Jesus Christ created all that is seen and unseen, including all of us. As a child of this loving God, I am not disconnected from my neighbors. Instead, we are part of a larger family. The people who stand in line in front of and behind me at the grocery store are my sisters and brothers. We may not live in the same house or share the same beliefs, but we are still family. I even believe the shooter in Tucson is family, although I do not understand why he attacked our family or ignored our common humanity.

Let us hear the shots fired in Tucson as a call to action to draw near to one another. Let us look for ways to know our neighbors and the kids down the street. Let’s move beyond merely waving at one another in the neighborhood and stop to say “hello,” and “what is new with you?” Let the shots be the first step in a changed Maricopa, one where we value community over politics. 

We are, you see, in this together. We cannot pretend that the shots fired by a crazy person in Pima County were across the country or around the world. We cannot pretend that a shooting at a Safeway has nothing to do with us. Rather, as sisters and brothers, as people connected to one another, these shots affect each and every one of us. These were shots in our neighborhood and our job now is to come together as neighbors to build deeper community.

Eric Brown is the pastor of Journey Church, which meets on Sundays at 10:15 a.m. at Santa Cruz Elementary School in Tortosa: JourneyUnitedMethodist.org.

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