Tragedy in Tuscon

By now, a lot has been written and said about the tragedy in Tuscon last Saturday. In recent history, there have been very few incidents like this which have rallied the whole nation. Challenger disaster in 1986, Oklahoma city bombing in 1995 and September 11, 2001 come to mind. While we grieve and mourn for the dead and pray for the survivors, we also want to know why it happened and how can we stop it from happening in future.

It is very tempting to lay the blame for this tragedy on the door steps of people or policies we don't agree with. People on extreme right and left have pointed fingers at each other. This serves no purpose. Frankly, we may never know the reason. If this tragedy can help start the right debate about our policies about mental illness, gun control etc., it might serve some purpose but pointing fingers at this stage does more harm than good.

I thought President Obama struck the right tone at the memorial service on Wednesday. He was inspiring and comforting at the same time. He really rose to the occasion. It was one of the best moments of his presidency.