Christina Green: A Face of Hope

Neda Agha-Soltan died of a gunshot wound to the chest on June 20, 2009, in the streets of Tehran during the Iranian election protests. 

Her violent death was graphically depicted in video and pictures, and she become a worldwide icon, representing the struggle of Iranian dissidents to bring about changes in the country as the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prevailed in a disputed election.

On January 8, 2011, Christina Taylor Green, aged 9,  was shot in the chest in front of a Tucson, Arizona Safeway while attending a "Congress on the Corner" event hosted by Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. 

A student council member at her elementary school, Christina was brought to the event by a family friend who thought she would like see a potential role model and government at work. 

Special Section: Tragedy in Tucson

Doctors at University Medical Center opened her chest to try to save her, but she did not survive. Five others died in the assault, and Rep. Giffords remains in critical condition.

Christina, who loved animals and baseball, and volunteered at a children's charity, died under different circumstances from Neda Agha-Soltan. Both were collateral damage.

Neda's was apparently shot by government militia forces as she watched demonstrators protest against the highly contested result of the Iranian election. 

Christina was killed by Jared Lee Loughner, a lone, mentally-disturbed gunman carrying an apparent grudge against Rep. Giffords and a Glock 19.  

Neda became a symbol for those opposing the rule of the Iranian regime. Christina may become a symbol for uniting Americans at a time when the country is increasingly polarized and suffering from an overdose of vitriolic rhetoric and the war of politics. 

While most Americans don't believe that the country's inflamed political rhetoric is directly to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage, the call to tone down the "crosshairs" language and violent imagery in political discourse, and to exhibit less partisanship and more humility, cannot be ignored. It's in the atmosphere that everyone breathes. Nor can the issues related to mental health care and gun control be ignored in light of the Loughner's rampage. 

In an address to Center for American Progress in Washington, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)  said, "...in the weeks and months ahead, the real issue we need to confront isn't just what role divisive political rhetoric may have played on Saturday -- but it's the violent, divisive, overly simplistic dialogue does to our democracy every day."

Christina was born on September 11, 2001, a day on which nearly 3,000 people died as the Twin Towers imploded. She was featured in "Faces of Hope,"  a book with pictures of babies from 50 states who were born on Sept. 11. 

She will continue to be a face of hope as Americans seek to recover  from the January 8 tragedy in Tucson.