[Vision2020] Darn liberals, politicizing everything

[Chuck Kovis]

The Tucson Memorial: Politics is Everywhere
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

Wednesday night's memorial in the McHale Arena at the University of Arizona 
did strike me as slightly strange, like an Irish wake that had prematurely 
transitioned into the later boisterous phase. The offbeat tone was 
established from the outset by Carlos Gonzalez, an associate prof at AU who 
delivered us from stuffy Anglican proprieties by very properly 
"politicizing" the event .  He identified himself as half Pascua Yaqui 
Indian (his reservation is in Giffords' district),  half Mexican, fifth 
generation  from the Tucson Valley and from a heritage richly stained by 
massacre.  Take that, governor Jan Brewer! There was no way anyone in the 
world audience was going to mistake this for an event taking place in the 
Cathedral in Washington DC.

Gonzalez flourished a talisman of eagle feathers  and  chanted a bracing 
traditional Indian blessing, walking the 13,000 crowd inside McKale Center 
(plus an overflow 13,000 at Arizona Stadium) around the four "doors" to 
wisdom, spirit, visions and energy and guidance, plus the male energy of the 
sky and the female energy of earth.   He blessed the victims, their 
families, all Americans, his son in Afghanistan and all his relations, all 
creatures including snakes. "I ask this so that we all can once again 
achieve harmony and balance in our lives. Oh, Creator, welcome -- we welcome 
those people who come to our beloved city here, our beloved city of Chukson 
or Tucson as it's known."

It was a bracing one-in-the eye for the Judeo-Christian tradition, and we 
should applaud the master of ceremonies, AU president Robert Shelton and his 
campaign to bring diverse  thought, culture and traditions to  AU's 
campuses. He surely knew what he was doing by having Gonzalez launch off the 
most widely viewed event in the history of Tucson.   "Together we thrive" 
was on the funeral programs and on t-shirts handed out at the door. Later in 
the evening Republicans were angrily asking whether this was some low 
Democratic ploy.  Together we thrive. outrageous!