In my column last week, I wrote of the promise and hope that 2011 held for all Americans and the citizens of the world. I did not consider that a madman would take a gun and massacre a half dozen people innocently waiting to meet their elected official at a town hall event. I, like most Americans, watched in shock as additional facts were discovered about the horrific event in Arizona that involved the shooting of a United States Congresswoman.

Included in the massacre in Arizona was the death of a 9-year-old girl who was born on Sept. 11, 2001. This little girl was just elected to the student council of her school and was at the event to talk to Congresswoman Giffords when her life was cruelly taken by a lunatic.

It is a sad day for all Americans when any of our elected officials is gunned down. This act is an affront to our democracy and an event such as this has no place in the land of the free and home of the brave. The people killed Saturday were Americans, not members of a political party. They were moms and dads, brothers and sisters and friends to many. Their loss will never be forgotten, and their last act of civic duty should be a testament to all Americans of how precious our liberty is.

This event should not be used as an excuse to bring up gun-control, Tea Party radicals or locking down America to prevent a crazed person from inflicting harm. It should be a time for all of us to step back from the ultra-charged partisan language being thrown around and remember that we are all Americans working toward the creation of that “shining city on a hill” for the rest of the world.

All other political topics seemed petty in light of the Arizona shooting.

God Bless America.

The last bite…

In honor of the season, I ate an entire king cake this weekend! It was good. Very good in fact. Although, Courtney and I were disappointed to find out it was a filled one (no, we didn’t read the label), it turned out to be just the right amount of bread to Bavarian cream ratio. I give it 4 crumbs! (out of 5)

Buddy Boe, a resident of LaPlace, is a former parish administrator and is well known on the local political (and food) scenes. His column appears every Wednesday in L’Observateur.