Healing the Heart of Democracy
In memory of
Christina Taylor Green (2001-2011)
Addie Mae Collins (1949-1963)
Denise McNair (1951-1963)
Carole Robertson (1949-1963)
Cynthia Wesley (1949-1963)Christina died when an assassin in Tucson, Arizona, opened fired at a public event hosted by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was seriously wounded. Addie Mae, Denise, Carole, and Cynthia died when violent racists bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
When we forget that politics is about weaving a fabric of compassion and justice on which everyone can depend, the first to suffer are the most vulnerable among us - our children, the elderly, the mentally ill, the poor, and the homeless. As they suffer, so does the integrity of our democracy.
May the heartbreaking deaths of these children - and the hope and promise that was in their young lives - help us find the courage to create a politics of the human spirit.
Those words appear as the frontispiece of a remarkable book by a remarkable man. Let me tell you a bit about him.
Parker Palmer is one of the most important thinkers in America: he was picked as a visionary thinker by Utne.
