This is not one of your typical end of the year posts.
It is not about out with the old and in with the new or memorable moments in 2011.
Yet, it was a list of Memorable Quotes from 2011 that prompted my thinking.
One of the Memorable Quotes was made by a member of Congress In response to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.  When asked about the tragedy, the Congressperson said, “I don’t attribute this terrible event to the tenor of political discourse in the United States.”

I disagree.
The words we use and the way we talk about and respond to each other matter.
While we may never know for certain any or all of the reasons that Lee Loughner did what he did, the current divisiveness in our country, amped up by the state of political discourse that will only get worse as we move into an election year, creates a climate that makes more space for tragedies, like the one that occurred almost a year ago, to happen.  I know it is easier said than done (and we have been saying it for a long time), but rather than denying the prevailing climate in our country and our part in allowing it to be so, we need to be honest about it and take responsibility for it.  

The response to being teased that I learned as a child…
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me.
Is not longer true, if it ever was.
The words we use either help or hurt;
Either build up or tear down;
Either create community or destroy it.
We get to decide.