Affirming our Civil Society in the Wake of Tragedy: A Tucson Principal’s Remarks to Students
[Remarks to Students after a moment of silence, 1.12.11]
On Saturday, our hometown Tucson was struck hard by an individual acting without conscience, without rationality, and possibly without sanity. This terrible strike hit us at our community’s most sensitive place: not only did it harm and kill many fine, fine people, it hit us in the heart of our body politic.
Since the ancient Athenians conceived of and built the polis, a democratic state composed of citizens governing themselves in the open air by way of free and spirited discourse and debate, this idea of the body politic has been our civilization’s ideal, our shining city on a hill.
Saturday morning, in front of a Tucson Safeway at which many of us shop regularly, an elected official and her staff came to talk in the open air with Tucson citizens, acting out our nation’s and our civilization’s ideals. In a