Inhumane Shallows of Political Conversation

United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords has a friend in author Tom Zoellner. Tom has known Gabby for a decade and has even knocked on doors in the Arizona sun in support of her campaign. He knows a side of her all America would like to know.

Tom wrote, "I want her to be able to ride her motorcycle through the hills east of town that she loved, to pop in to the TTT Truck Stop for some pie à la mode, to talk to the person on the stool next to her about whatever they wanted to say, to take hummingbird sips of Negra Modela and pretend she was actually drinking, and to go on brightly in the E-kay of her voice about the ideas that were constantly occurring to her and the ways she would carry them out."

Education and Business Experience

After a distinguished educational track that includes a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American History from Scripps College in California, A Master of Regional Planning from Cornell University, a Fullbright Scholar in Chihuahua, Mexico and a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, she worked as an associate for regional economic development at Price Waterhouse in New York City until her father called and said help was needed at the family business in Tucson. In 1996 she became CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a local chain founded by her grandfather. (continued below)

Public Service

Gabrielle Giffords was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2000. Two years later she became the youngest woman elected to the Arizona Senate, a position she held until December 1, 2005, when she resigned to run for Congress. In late summer of that year, she was a volunteer in Houston, Texas, helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. She has been a member of the U. S. Congress since January, 2007.

Back in Houston

Gabby Giffords is now back in Houston. This time, however, it is not a trip from her beloved Arizona that she wanted to take. Having been shot in the head at point blank range on January 8 at a political event outside a Safeway grocery store in Casas Adobes, Arizona, a suburb of Tucson, she was taken to University Medical Center for treatment. Then, on January 21, she was flown to Houston’s Memorial Hermann Medical Center in Houston.

Today, January 25, she is to be transferred to The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research, known as TIRR Memorial Hermann. Her condition was upgraded from serious to good last night. Now begins the long process of rehabilitation therapies. A brain injury has many, many effects, most of which are not known at this time because Gabby has been unable to speak.

Has America Been Unable to Speak?

Are Americans so influenced by the fringe elements of political thinking that we are content to wallow in the inhumane shallows of political conversation? The Constitution of the United States contains words in its preamble that state one of government’s goals is to promote the general welfare. Recently, general welfare has taken on a new meaning, according to some, — socialism.

Those who promote the general welfare are called socialists. Unless that general welfare involves government programs like highways, police departments, fire departments, local health departments, etc.

Another goal of government stated in the Preamble is to insure domestic tranquility. Insuring peace at home, however, should not involve gun control of any kind, again — according to some.

We hear political leaders and those who are called political pundits defaming one another. We see the Mitch McConnell’s and the John Boehner’s and the Eric Me Too’s pledging to sacrifice the best interests of America for a political agenda. Why else would they not sit down and discuss a possible compromise of ideas? Is it because they, for so long now, have been wallowing in the inhumane shallows of political conversation?

Just last night Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, in her response to the President’s State of the Union speech, said the president should repeal his health care bill and let the free market take care of any problems that exist in the world’s best health care system but should also impose malpractice lawsuit limitations. I guess the free market cannot fix the malpractice problem.

We also heard Congressman express that one of his greatest concerns as a parent of three children, aged six, seven and eight, was the debt facing the United States government. Really? My wife and I had a lot of concerns during the growth years of our children, and I can honestly say that I had many, many concerns greater than the national debt. They rode bicycles; they played baseball, they fished in the lake not too far from our house; they visited friends; their friends visited our house; they attended daycare; they attended church. There were many, many things that generated concern for their health and well-being. The national debt? Not so much. Did you? That, to me, is wading in the shallow waters of political conversation.

Gabby Giffords will experience many things during rehabilitation, each of those things designed to help restore a portion of her life. One of those things will be speech therapy. Perhaps it is time for America to undergo speech therapy and turn away from the inhumane shallows of political conversation.

This is a developing story. For now, we can only hold up the families of this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.

Learn More About Brain Injury

Larry and Beth Jameson, authors of Brain Injury Survivor’s Guide, have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They maintain two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.