We want our country back

Like many other Americans, I was very moved and impressed by President Obama's memorial address at Tucson concerning the victims of last week’s horrendous tragedy. One could not help but be affected as the President spoke of the individuals who died and especially nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green.

Watching her young parents hold each other and shed tears as the president remarked on their daughter’s wonderful personality and how she was already excited and curious about public service, I couldn’t help but think of my own children when they were Christina's age. It was a reaction common to many other parents, I am sure. How would we have reacted to the shooting and killing of our young children? I hope in the same courageous way as Christina’s parents.

I was especially moved when the president called on us to rethink our political discourse and our political differences and commit ourselves to imagining an America through Christina's eyes -- an America where people first and foremost worked to help each other and to establish a more perfect union and one aimed at achieving liberty and equality for all.

When people with less unifying intents in mind shout out "We want our country back," they and all of us should redefine this mantra with Christina in mind.“We want our country back" should now mean that we want a country that fully lives up to its democratic ideals where disparities of wealth and disparities of power no longer characterize our society but instead are replaced by a society centered on social justice and equal opportunity for all.

That is in keeping with Christina’s dream. May she and the others who died in Tucson rest in peace.