Dear Friends,
If I could send her Christina Taylor Green this letter I would….I may or may not send it to her family, but wanted you to know my thoughts…
- Dear Christina,
I had the pleasure to meet your grandfather when he was the manager of the Chicago Cubs many years ago. He was a very fine baseball man who accomplished many significant things as a baseball manager. It is not surprising to me that you were a young person who loved baseball and also wanted to become more aware of how to become an involved citizen.
I wish I had answers for the questions which your death raises. I am a rabbi who unfortunately has to grapple with many challenging questions about why bad things happen to good people. I have no explanation for your death but hope that through thinking about your life, I can find meaning in the lessons that your short life has taught me.
First of all, you were born on a day, Sept. 11, 2001, when our world was torn apart by the horrors of terrorism. Your birth and the birth of all those who were born on that day, inspired so many of us to have hope in a world that seemed hopeless. On this Shabbat,(Sabbath), in the Jewish religion, we are celebrating the Sabbath of Song, which commemorates the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea in Biblical days.Our tradition teaches that one of the reasons the miracle occurred was because an individual named Nachshon was willing to take a chance and step into the Red Sea. While others cried out, rushed into the Sea and drowned and some returned to slavery, Nachshon took the first step into the Sea with the hope that his act might lead to a miracle. His courage led to the freedom of the Israelite people who evolved into the Jewish people that we know today.
Your first step into the adult world to meet a Congress Person was a miracle, Christina. In a world torn by skepticism and cynicism, you taught us the miracle of believing that we can make a difference. Although you won’t be in this world to see it, the world will be a better place because people will learn from the tragedy that led to your death. They will learn that we must not say gnasty things to each other in a way which causes anger and hatred. They will learn, as the President of the United States, Barach Obama, said that we should use our words to heal and not to wound. They will learn that children still believe in the power of each of us to make a difference.
Oh Christina, a child of hope on Sept. 11…it is not fair that you should have to die in order for us to remember that basic human decency necessitates that we should be civil with each other. I wish that people would learn to use their words as sources of hope, rather than as weapons. I wish that people would be more sensitive to those who show signs of mental illness and reach out and help them. I wish that people would not use weapons which can kill, in order to hurt nine year old girls and others.
But…Christina, we live in a world that needs to be repaired. In the Jewish tradition we call this repair, tikkun. May your memory inspire each of us to find an area of our world to fix and devote ourselves to the best for which you hoped…that we can make a difference.
May your family be comforted during this tragic time and may your innocence and idealism find you a place as G-d’s right hand person, helping to inspire each of us to make our world a better place to live.
We miss you, but will never forget the hope you have given all of us.
B’shalom,
Rabbi Bruce Aft