Three Years.

W.W.G.G.D

What Would Gabby Giffords Do.

Each year on this day I have been moved to write a tearful eulogy of sorts to six wonderful people, nearly a seventh.  But for the first time, at least for me, I don't want to remember this tragedy entirely through tears.  It may have been just a job.  It may have been only half a year but my time in Arizona, in Sierra Vista, with the Congresswoman was undoubtedly the watershed event of my lifetime.  Without my time there I would not be the person that I am today and for the first time, perhaps ever, I can say that with many faults I am proud of the person I am becoming.  The majority of this I can attribute to Congresswoman Giffords.  Gabby was much more than a boss, for me she has been and will continue to be an inspiration for living.  She is a survivor and I believe that she teaches everyone daily the importance of life.  I know that I live each day thinking "what would Gabby Giffords do," something that I know has made me into a kinder, more considerate man.  I am certainly not perfect.  In fact I believe I have many more faults than most, but Gabby, directly and indirectly, has helped me become a better man.  

Whenever I write about Gabby, I tell the same story.  Here it is: We had a campaign event in the lobby of a hotel in Douglas Arizona.  Douglas sits on the border between the US and Mexico.  We had a pancake breakfast and we were expecting around 50 people.  Hundreds showed up to the point where we were passed capacity.  And then the Congresswoman arrived.  Her speech was supposed to last ten or so minutes and then she would be off to open the Douglas headquarters.  She didn't start talking for over an hour.  Why?  Because she went around to each and every person in the lobby and talked to them.  If she didn't know them, she introduced herself, but most she knew and knew well.  Not in that political way that an aide reminds you who they are, no, she knew them on a very personal level.  She cared about them as people, not as votes.  Gabby spoke to each person as if she was their neighbor, not their representative.  I stood back in awe with a group of her staffers.  When one of them saw the look on my face she said, "That's just who she [the Congresswoman] is."  She did this at every event.  That was what she was doing 3 years ago today.  Congress on your corner.  Gabrielle Giffords represented the best of what the government can do for you.  When I think of the face of politics today I get sick.  Gabby was never the face of politics, but the face of leadership.  And today, she remains just as steadfast in that resolve as ever.  One bullet cannot deter her message of hope for a better tomorrow.  The same hope that she had when she started in politics is the same hope she lives with today.

For some a bullet is the period on their lives.  For Gabby, that bullet is merely a comma.  Everyday she inspires us to do better, to live better, to be better.  I am and will forever be honored to say that I had the chance to meet, work, and know this amazing woman.  

Continued Rest in Peace: John Roll, Christina-Taylor Green, Dorwan Stoddard, Phyllis Schneck, Dorothy Morris, and Gabe Zimmerman.  

WWGGD.