We Are All Christina Greene

As the nation grapples with the unspeakable tragedy surrounding the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who at this very moment is bravely struggling for life after having a bullet pass entirely through her brain, one cannot help but think of the youngest vicim of the recent violence.

Christina Greene was only nine when she was shot in the chest by a deranged zealot who would also take the lives of five others. Her future was bright, although she would never be given the chance to become a judge or a Congresswoman like some of the other more recognized victims of Saturday’s violence. Still, perhaps more than anyone else in the public eye today, she represents everything that our national has lost as our political landscape continues to spiral into a terrifying place where hyper-partisan hatred and recrimination has come to replace any inclination towards mutual respect and understanding, let alone genuine dialogue.

Christina was born on September 11, 2001. As she grew up, even as a very young child she took pride not only in her country but also in her date on which she was born, a day forever associated with yet another horrific national tragedy. At an age when many children are more interested in the latest video game or what is on television, she loved to wear red, white and blue, and talk about her dreams of a future in public service. When she was old enough to be told by her parents that it was not quite appropriate for her to continue to refer to her birthday as a “holiday”, she held firm in a way that many of us several times her age would have difficulty finding the conviction to do.

As her grieving mother afterwards recounted to journalists, little Christina still was determined to call September 11th a holiday because in her mind it was the date that everyone in the country came together as one nation in response to an event bigger than themselves. She did not therefore associate the date with fear or violence, but instead with love and hopefulness. Never mind that by the time that Christina could learn to speak, that solidarity had degenerated to such an extent that some began to use September 11th as an angry litmus test to challenge the patriotism of others, while others still began to recoil from the very mention of the date, arguing instead that the tragedy had become little more than a tool for implementing a neo-conservative political agenda. In Christina’s eyes the national repercussions of that day remained pure and good, just like Christina herself was pure and good. We remained the same noble, broad-minded nation we had once prided ourselves in being, at least in the eyes of a young girl brimming with energy and hope.

The day that Christina died, her mother recalled that she had asked to meet her local congresswoman because she herself had had dreams of entering politics to make the world a better place. In her own way, she had already begun to exercise her civic duty, having been elected to student government at her elementary school. I have no doubt that had she been given the chance, she would have one day achieved all of her goals. Any child who can become, at age nine, the only girl on an otherwise all-boy Little League team is a person who is not easily dissuaded by a challenge. Instead, a day that should have been merely an inspiring childhood memory instead resulted in a bright young life meeting a shocking and painful end, and the beginning of a long nightmare for her family and her country.

On behalf of those of us who never were lucky enough to get to know Christina, we must continue to hope that even if her vibrant spirit has been vanquished long before its time, the principles of unity, decency and public service that animated her short life will continue to live on. Before we become a nation that increasingly turns to silencing the voices of our best and brightest young minds, I hope that we remember that in the mind of one special young person, we still were one nation, united. May we continue to remain that way.

Adam Benz is the former Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Policy Digest.