Security was tight for the funeral services of US District Judge John Roll in Tuscon as Arizona Senators John McCain and John Kyl, Governor Jan Brewer and former Vice President Dan Quayle were among those in attendance at the services on Friday.
Roll, 63, was heralded as a stern-but-fair jurist who had been pressing for more courts and judges to handle the increased federal caseload brought on by illegal immigration in the region. Roll was on his way back from church on Saturday and some accounts said he wanted to personally thank Congresswoman Giffords for addressing the issue of the shortage of judges and courthouses in Arizona.
The day before, 9 year old Christina-Taylor Green was laid to rest at a funeral in St Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Tuscon. The roughly 1700 mourners in attendance passed under the National 9/11 flag- a tattered patchwork of fabric that was pulled from the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001- Christina-Taylor's date of birth. She was also featured in a 2002 book called Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11, which shows photos of babies from all 50 states that were born on 9/11/01.
She had just been elected to student council earlier in the school year [And I wouldn't be surprised if she was taken to Gifford's town hall event that day so she could see representative government in action for herself- NANESB]. Green also loved ballet, gymnastics and baseball, and she was the only girl on her team. Her father John is a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Baseball Hall of Famers Ryne Sandberg and Pat Gillick were in attendance at the funeral.
Christina-Taylor was aware of the significance of her date of birth and said she thought of herself as something good that came from that terrible day. Although horrifically cut down before she could pursue her dreams of public service, she was able to find a way to help others even in death. In an interview on CNN, John Green said that Christina was an organ donor and that the family had already received word from the organ donor network that Christina's organs saved the life of a little girl in Boston.
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