It looks like Congresswomen Giffords is still alive because an intern did not run away. Daniel Hernandez had been on her staff for five days went the bullets started to fly. The story of his actions had me weeping this morning:
When the shots began that morning, he saw many people lying on the ground, including a young girl. Some were bleeding. Hernandez said he moved from person to person checking pulses.
“First the neck, then the wrist,” he said. One man was already dead. Then he saw Giffords. She had fallen and was lying contorted on the sidewalk. She was bleeding.
Using his hand, Hernandez applied pressure to the entry wound on her forehead. He pulled her into his lap, holding her upright against him so she wouldn’t choke on her own blood. Giffords was conscious, but quiet. [snip]
He stayed with Giffords until paramedics arrived. They strapped her to a board and loaded her into an ambulance. Hernandez climbed in with her. On the ride to the hospital, he held her hand. She squeezed his back.
When they arrived at the hospital, Hernandez was soaked in blood.
Thank you Daniel Hernandez!
And what John said, “This shooting demonstrates that we really need to tone down the violent political rhetoric” needs to be repeated over and over again. The rhetoric of incitement is almost entirely on the Right and the false equivalence that all sides do it equally must be knocked down. Every time one these wingnut neo-Confederate mouths “you lie” or “government takeover” or “death pannels” or “job killing” or what ever Luntz crafted bullshit designed to incite and divided they need to be called out and Journalists who let them mouth these lies without rebuke need to know that they have blood on their hands.
The next time–and there will be a next time if the violent political rhetoric does not become taboo–we may not be so lucky as to have an intern like Mr. Hernandez around.
Great sadness today mixed with great anger for the assholes and their talking points of hate.
Heroism: “It was probably not the best idea to run toward the gunshots”Post + Comments (71)