A love poem for Tucson

The smell of the desert during the monsoon season. Awaking every day to sunshine. A flamenco studio where you sweat bullets before class even starts. A cactus garden in the middle of the University. Day of the Dead parade where the streets are shut down, everyone dresses up as the dead, and spend the night dancing to Brazilian drum bands and watching acrobats dance around a cauldron of fire. Driving 20 minutes out of the city and not seeing a single human being in sight. Taco trucks. Bike riding down West University Boulevard.

Tucson, Arizona is a wonderful city. A holdout in the desert of college students, snow birds, and lots of cacti, the city has a character and a vibe that I have rarely seen. I did my undergrad at the University of Arizona and had the chance to spend four years in the Old Pueblo.

I love that city.

I hate what happened to it.

Last weekend, a 22-year-old man approached Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and shot her point blank in the head. He then moved down the line of people waiting to speak with her and killed 6 people, including a 9-year-old girl. He was tackled only when he was reloading and the spring malfunctioned.

Now Tucson is making international headlines, for all the wrong reasons.

Again, Jon Stewart hit the nail on the head on The Daily Show. His segment articulated well what a lot of people are thinking. That you cannot blame what happened on heated political discourse or a toxic climate in American politics. That there are events that cannot be controlled or explained.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-10-2011/arizona-shootings-reaction

It's normal to look for a cause or a reason behind things such as this, but almost always it's more complex. A few things might be drawn out though.

For example, the gun laws in Arizona were a clear failure on behalf of the state to protect its citizens. Arizona has some of the most lenient gun laws in the nation, allowing someone to legally purchase a semi-automatic gun even when they had been expelled from community college due to mental health issues. A second amendment right to bear arms was approved when these types of weapons didn't exists. Following to the letter this type of document is like following 18th-century medical advice; the fundamentals are there, but things need to be up to date.

Second, Jared Laughtner, the shooter, did not seem to receive any kind of mental health support. Perhaps when he was removed from community college and not allowed to return without consulting a mental health professional, the state should have stepped in with those services. Yes, you cannot require that people get mental health care, but the dismal state of the Arizona health system and the absolute gutting of the state budget in recent years could have played a hand in Saturday's events. Social service programs have been slashed, and the effects could become obvious soon.

What most hit me about what was on Stewart's clip and in the news were the stories behind the people who were there to see Giffords. A man standing in line who had come to talk to Giffords about his army assignment and to commend her for winning the difficult election. A judge stopping for a chat on the court system. A retired woman who was a staunch Republican but wanted to chat with Giffords about her ideas anyway. A businesswoman thanking Giffords for her legislature that gave her business a tax cut for installing appliances and allowed her to expand. Perhaps most sadly but most hopefully, the 9-year-old waiting to meet her who had been elected to student council and was interested in seeing how politics worked.

Giffords herself is a fantastic Congresswoman and I'm proud that her and Raul Grijalva are representing Southern Arizona. Giffords, whose meetings and speeches I reported on for the different papers I worked for at University, is intelligent and very amiable. She has good ideas on immigration, on science, on energy policy. She is as congresspeople should be: available to their constituents, willing to listen, willing to make the tough decisions. I'd vote for her 100 times over again and hope she is recovering well.

Tucson mourning.

The most hopeful thing is seeing the photos and hearing the updates about the memorial service to be held today. President Obama will be attending, and news reports state that the McKale Center will be filled to capacity, with the overflow being held in the stadium.

I love you Tucson, I hope you heal soon.