Strength in Community

By Linda Grupp Boutin 

We watch history unfold before our eyes every day. The very first historical day I remember with clarity was a November day, crisp and cool despite the sunshine bathing all around me. We were summoned from our 3^rd grade classroom to the playground where we held all-school assemblies. The principal told us that we were being excused early that day because the President had been shot in Dallas. From that moment until JFK was buried, we joined the rest of the country first praying he would be okay, then mourning the loss together, finally admiring his son saluting the casket of our fallen leader.

My parents had required we watch as rockets left the earth and allowed us to watch history unfold as witnesses to a presidential assassination. That wasn’t the only assassination I saw, there was the time George Wallace was shot—hit by a bullet and confined to a wheelchair for life. We lost Martin Luther King and I was watching the night RFK took a bullet. It seemed to me that a public life could be a very dangerous thing. 

There had been a Cuban Missile crisis that I could not understand except that my mom was terrified for my brothers in the US Marines. We prayed for their safety. Many young men I knew dreaded turning 18 and being forced to sign-up for the draft. My sister’s husband received a high number and we tracked the Vietnam War nightly on the TV.

I understood nothing was assured on this earth, but though traumatic, these events seemed distant, rarely touching me on a personal level. Events paraded through my life, Apollo space capsule fires, earthquakes, floods, tornados. I watched when the shuttle exploded just after liftoff killing all aboard. I knew this world to be dangerous.

So when 9/11/01 rolled around, though the world certainly wasn’t safe, I never expected the day to unfold as it did. I woke to my dog curled behind my knees a bit earlier than normal. I switched on the news to watch The Today Show and was shocked into full alert. A huge fire burned in New York City and it took a few minutes to realize a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers. I woke Gary and he joined me just in time for us to witness the second plane crashing into the second tower.

Time entered a strange warp with us consuming every detail as it was reported by CNN. Another plane crashed into the Pentagon, they grounded all flights, President Bush came on the air to help the country cope, Washington DC was evacuated, another plane crashed in a field. About then the phone rang and Gary’s interview for a computer job was cancelled; the company had been headquartered in the now melted Twin Towers. My boss at the library called and said we would not open that day and to stay home. We stared at one another in horror, how could this have happened? We heard commentators begin to whisper about terrorism and the pieces began to fall into place.

Nervous energy compelled us to do something, anything to try and cope. We decided to go and stock up at Costco and when we arrived at the store it was evident we were not the only ones to think this way. We put everything away and wondered what to do next. I wanted to go to church, but didn’t want to leave the news feed. Praying silently I petted my dog and tried not to imagine how many were in the destroyed buildings. Gary could not sit still anymore and pulled out a square canvas he had built.

I watched fascinated as he took a pencil and string and drew concentric circles on the canvas. The company he had hoped to work for never recovered. Eventually the library reopened, but they kept the TV on every moment they were open monitoring the level of alert the country was in. Not quite willing to accept that another attack was not imminent. CVCC contacted the congregation inviting us to attend all church prayer. Shell-shocked and stunned, I can’t remember anything about the service though I seem to remember we went.

Days passed by and Gary’s pristine white canvas filled with images and colors. The circles remained but filled with red and white, the center turned blue, the exterior of the circle orange and black. Stars filled the field of blue, the largest centered on the canvas. The damaged towers rose again to the right with a US flag filling the opposite side. A strange, dark earth appeared at the bottom covered with an equally dark hand. Fireman and helicopters appeared near the towers, the first responders coming to the rescue. Finally a snake wound its way down from the top, threatening but not overcoming the red, white and blue…

A picture can say 1,000 words, but this one says so much more to me. It says keep the faith, better days can come if we join together and strive to repair after an attack. Thirteen little colonies joined together to defeat the pre-eminent world power of that day. Shortly thereafter, the fledgling country had to reinforce the lesson of freedom. Smaller wars came and went, older countries decided they wanted freedom too following our footsteps, and Civil War tore us to shreds only to come back together in unity to free the enslaved and give all an equal chance. When we come together in unity with our community, we are the strongest country in the world. Let’s all join together and rebuild our country again today, overcoming as we did in the Great Depression. We can do it all again, if we choose to join one another and try.

Tear Down This Wall-Part 1

By Linda Grupp Boutin

I have been considering George Washington this afternoon. How does someone develop an idea, totally new and different that defies the ostensible authority of the day? When he sat in Valley Forge, did he question what in the world he was doing? Or was the pain of freezing cold, inadequate supplies and overwhelming numbers against him what occupied his thoughts? I find it nearly impossible to put myself in Washington's boots. Intuitively I understand that this man thought audacious ideas and had the perseverance to see it through.

Washington spent long days of his youth surveying the countryside. A surveyor must study the landscape around them and then carefully measure and record what is seen. From his observations, he understood that the area that would become the United States was a huge place. Did he take solace in the fact that the entire Atlantic Ocean created a huge distance between the U.S. and England?

I must admit that it's pretty much impossible for me to wrap my head around how George took his audacious vision and turned it into reality for all of us. So let me talk a bit about a later president, one who I remember from my lifetime, Ronald Reagan, the 40th President. I had an awareness of Reagan long before he became my president. First I heard of him as an actor and not one with the very best of movie roles on his bio. He surprised me quite a bit when he landed the position of Governor of California and I began to pay a bit more attention. But really, an actor turned politician running for president? Sounds ridiculous to say the least.

Yet Reagan gained the title of The Great Communicator and possibly all that time studying scripts and learning dialog helped him understand how to reach an audience. There was a whole lot more to this actor turned governor and eventually president than I had given him credit for. And like so many of the other strong voices in my lifetime, just 69 days after his inauguration he too took a bullet for his country. Another assassination attempt in my memory, I happened to be watching the news as it broke.

Just like with JFK, the Secret Service rushed Reagan to the hospital and once again we waited hours on end to see if this president would survive his wound. I've heard it said that had that bullet pierced Reagan's chest just one inch further over, his heart would have been destroyed. But this was a man with a very strong heart and will to live. After Reagan survived his too-close shave with death, in 1987 he gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate. He shared the audacious spirit of our first president when he challenged the leader of the now defunct USSR, "Mr. Gorbachev, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Do you remember or did you learn about it in history class? Reagan dared his adversary to tear down the Berlin wall that had stood since 1961 while the USSR controlled East Berlin. It still amazes me that our president had the strength of character to directly challenge a wrong that had lasted over 25 years. His audacious and bold thought led to an eventual destruction of an arbitrary wall separating a city for decades. Reagan abhorred communism and did his best to correct the injustice he saw in the world. He was not a perfect president, no frail human can ever reach perfection. But for those families living in Berlin and trying to just visit family, he made a difference with his words. Just a couple of years after Reagan's speech, I rejoiced with the rest of the world when the Berliners tore that wall down brick by brick. He returned to Berlin in 1990 and took a couple of symbolic swings with a hammer to the remnants of this wall himself.

So how about you? Do you dare to dream an audacious dream? Have you raised your voice with concern about a problem you see? A friend of mine is working on a special project. She admires those who have helped others through adoption. She has conceived an idea to share this information on the internet with video clips. It's a tough assignment she's undertaken. And whether she brings it to fruition or not, I must admire her for trying. For raising her voice to speak about something she believes in and helping others find the resources they need to try adoption for their family.

For me, I am taking baby steps forward. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, I saw many people in their own ways trying to find some way to help this situation. After a lifetime spent punctuated with shooting after shooting, assassination after assassination, I have called my Representative and Senators to pledge my solidarity in an assault weapon ban. The only persons justified in carrying guns that can shoot 30-100 bullets at a time are soldiers fighting for our freedom. I don't care what the NRA yells about Second Amendment rights. I don't want to hear about any more first and second graders being dismembered in their classrooms by someone with a gun that can fire dozens of shots before reloading. A law may not stop the next gunman who steps out of the shadows to take another's life, but it surely is a place to start as a society to say that, "We are just not going to take it anymore! Stop the shooting and stop the killing!"

Thanks to Wikipedia for helping me fact-check my memory! http://en.wikipedia.org

Finding a Voice

By Linda Grupp Boutin

Have you heard the story of Gabby Giffords? Talk about a person celebrating her voice and making the most of a tough situation...

I have watched many politicians in my life. One of my first memories, certainly of a political nature, was the assassination of my president, John F. Kennedy. In just the third grade, for the first time the principal called us onto the playground for an announcement. The president had been shot and we didn't know if he would survive. He did not and many days were lost to mourning his death, ending up with the state funeral where we saw his son, John-John, salute his father's coffin on the way to Arlington National Cemetery.

For me, I learned at this young age that using your voice, as JFK had, can be hazardous. Not everyone will agree with you. Some might even break the law in trying to silence you. Still his famous words ring loudly in my ears, "My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." It does not matter what your political affiliations might be, this is the sentiment our Founding Fathers adopted when overthrowing the shackles of being held as a British colony.

So what does all this have to do with Celebrating Your Voice? Gabby Giffords believes in the United States. On January 8, 2011, she held a "Congress on the Corner" meeting in a grocery store parking lot for her Arizona constituents. She represented them in the U.S. House of Representatives. During this event a gunman opened fire wounding her in the head, hitting 19 people with gunfire, and killing 6. 

Although her condition was grave, she kept amazing all around her as she rallied from this wound. There are many physical problems a politician can work around. Many have served in Congress from wheelchairs, with artificial limbs, through cancer and a host of other challenges. But the one thing a politician cannot function without is a voice. They convince, cajole and consent with their words. Yet Gabby had taken that bullet to the area of the brain affecting speech.

Some demanded that because of her absence and grave injuries that she resign her post in Congress. But as the months passed her condition improved and by eight months later she appeared on the floor of the House to cast a vote. She has since resigned her seat, but has received much encouragement from others in Congress facing the same hazard she faced that Saturday morning from a gunman. To express your voice in the United States can be dangerous to your health.

Despite the trouble she has saying a simple sentence, Gabby with her husband Mark Kelly, former Space Shuttle astronaut, are leading the way in the fight against assault weapons. It was such a weapon that wounded her and took the lives of 6 others that Saturday morning near Tucson. When you hear Gabby speak, the effort required of her to put those words together is only overshadowed by the obvious strength of spirit and belief she courageously displays. She exemplifies what we all must do to make a difference in this world. She considers a problem, takes a stand to try and correct it, and uses her voice to convince us of the justice of her cause.

Many people try to define heroes as sports figures who achieve amazing feats or famous singers, actors and actresses who dazzle us with their performances, but what is it that we truly value in our heroes. For me, Gabby Giffords sums it up. She has taken adversity in her life and turned it to the good. You can agree or disagree with her political positions, but you can take nothing from the unvarnished courage she displays when advocating with a broken, but undefeated voice that she celebrates.

Thanks to Wikipedia for helping me fact-check my memory! http://en.wikipedia.org