Remembering Not to Forget

A Remembrance Run was held January 10, 2011 at the weekly Meet Me At Maynards.

Like you, I’m in shock.  The tragic events of Saturday, January 8, 2011 swept over me in wave after wave of anger, disbelief, horror, sadness and grief.  How could something like this happen?

By now, everyone knows that Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot at a community event this past weekend.  Six people lost their lives.  A young girl, a federal judge, a church volunteer.  Gone. People we knew, friends, or friends of friends had their lives changed forever in just twenty seconds.

It was surreal watching the news that day.  It was national news, covered by every major news network.  These were events unfolding in our backyard, but here it is on MSNBC, FOX and CNN.  We’ve all been to that Safeway, driven through that intersection and complained about the traffic.  We’ve just never seen it from that angle, from a helicopter, on national TV.

Facebook, twitter, email and text were exploding with updates.  I suppose I was like everyone else skipping between channels, checking the internet, following Facebook and other online sites.  I too did the mental check down – “where are my loved ones today?”  I cried when they announced Gabby had died.  Cried again when they announced she wasn’t.  I grew angry at the conflicting reports.  With a journalism background, I was frustrated with the urge of the outlets to to be first with breaking news, even if first meant you were wrong.

Gabby is a friend of mine. I’ve known her from before her political career and am proud to call her a friend.  During this process it has been both staggering and awesome to count the number of people she has touched in our community.  The number of friends she has is inspiring.

Gabe Zimmerman, Gabby’s Director of Community Outreach, lost his life that day as well.  This hit closer to home in my circle of friends.  You see, Gabe was a runner.  He recently completed the Mount Lemmon Half Marathon and his dad was the leader of the Tucson Trail Runners.  He came from a family of runners and was well known in our running family.  We are in shock and utter sadness.

I’m angry.  My sense that day was to do something, to help.  As a board member of the Southern Arizona Roadrunners, we have a simple mission to promote running and healthy lifestyles in our community.  We put on races and sponsor running and walking events. My friend and running mentor, Randy Accetta struck on a simple idea: We can turn our mission to a good use.  We can promote healing in our community and continue to share the positive attributes that make our community great.  We’ve seen it, people coming together to promote healthy lifestyles, to make themselves and their city better.

We will promote that healing process tonight at the weekly Meet Me At Maynard’s.  A Remembrance Run in memory of those that lost their lives, honoring those that are still fighting and celebrating what is good in Tucson. Tonight we will remember so that we never forget.