This may not end up being the diary I'd planned to write today but none the less it's important.
Today from 10am-3pm at Foothills Mall in Tucson the Tucson Red Cross is doing a Blood Drive to replace the blood used treating victims of yesterday's shooting
This is the kind of thing that needs to come out of yesterday's shooting: healing and coming together as a community. Whether that community be physically local like Tucson or a virtual community like Daily Kos or the blogosphere in general, we need to take the time we need to heal and move on.
One of my favorite quotes from yesterday came from Tucson's other Representative in Congress, Rep. Raul Grijalva:
I hope people stop and think that we can be opponents, but we don't have to be deadly enemies...to demonize another person because of a disagreement and to make them expendible is not a democracy, it's not the America I know.
Exactly. This sentiment embodies everything I've tried to do by blogging about the things I usually write about here on Kos: soups and pooties. We have to learn to recognize and appreciate each other as humans, only then can we have meaningful debate. In the virtual world it's all too easy to forget that the person we are arguing with is human, just like us- complete with emotions, trigger points, good and bad qualities. As I say often:
In order to move our Progressive agenda forward, we have to have a strong Progressive community.
So today in Tucson they are doing a blood drive for the Red Cross. In coming weeks Tucsonans will gather to turn back the hate that Phelps and Westboro Church will try to bring to town. And we in the blogosphere and on twitter and facebook will join them in spirit.
Together we will heal. Together we can build a Progressive community to stand up for the Progressive ideals we believe in.
Keyword: Together