A river of service runs through them

 

 Timm (picture at left, sitting at right) was one of the Salem district aides working for former Congresswoman Darlene Hooley (right), who served Oregon's Fifth Congressional District from 1994 to 2008.  Hooley's accomplishments include advocating banking laws, and legislation fighting identity theft, methamphetamine abuse and ecoterrorism. She was  a key sponsor of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act, voted against the use of military force in Iraq, and, as a member of the Veterans' Affairs committee, focused on veterans' health care and the deployment of National  Guard troops. She may be best remembered for staking out moderate position in an increasingly polarized Washington.

When I read online the other day a Wall Street Journal piece about Representative Gabrielle Giffords's district office staff in Tucson heading back to work on the Monday after the shooting, I thought much about the time Timm spent working as an aide and caseworker in Congresswoman Darlene's Hooley's Oregon Fifth congressional district office in Salem.

Such a terrible, sad, sign-of-the-times event. My heart goes out to the victims' families and I give a hopeful thumbs-up to Rep. Giffords's continuing, miraculous recovery. And, like everyone else, I hope the event motivates positive changes in the electrical charge of political discourse, and brings attention to the plight of so many young people whose psyches are not faring well into adulthood.

In a Nov. 2, 2010 photo Representative Christine Giffords gets a hug from a supporter prior to her re-election to her Tucson congressional district.

* * *

The events of January 8 must have had a difficult resonance for Hooley and her former staff, wherever they are these days. The Wall St. Journal piece gave the portrait of a staff which felt like family -- diverse, of varying experience in the political arena, people who felt public service was more than a job or a duty, but rewarding too in the knowledge that real good was being attempted in the community. Hooley and her former staff exemplified those qualities, in my thinking, to a "T." 

In preparation for this post, I emailed three of them for comment, but as of this writing none have responded. It may be too difficult, or they may have spoken out enough already; after so much public service, privacy must carry a great premium. Besides, Timm surely is a distant memory for them by now, this work of remembering him reaching a much-diminished circle of sustaining interest. 

(But If any of you read this post: My gratitude goes out to you for the work you've done in service to your country, to all the people in your district and in advance for all the service which lies ahead.)

* * *

With all the media attention on Giffords and her staff, I saw how parallels to Timm's tenure in the Salem district office of former Representative Hooley.

 Timm (far right) with fellow district staffers at the conclusion of a 2-day jaunt down the Willamette River, concluding in Portland, to help launch Hooley's Willamette River United Act. There are literally dozens of pictures related to the event in Timm's archives, but this image is the only one in which he appears -- typical, for the Photographer.

Timm's official duties included serving as a liaison for her methamphetamine policy efforts, communicating her stance and advising her on local needs; and assisting constituents to resolve issues with Medicare and Social Security by working with liaisons in both agencies to sort out the issues.

That's how Timm put it on a resume -- the official role. But inside all of that was the presence, resourcefulness, initiative and vitality he supplied to a staff effort, supporting a Democratic congresswoman whose job it was help lead the nation through the many challenges of the middle of the first decade of the 21st century -- in a Republican-controlled Washington, with war grueling on in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy about to implode with the advent of the subprime lending crisis, with methamphetamine and prescription drug use skyrocketing and issues of insanity and gun ownership arising in the dialogue following the mass murder at Virginia Tech; with partisan rancor growing ever-more bitter and divisive; and with a growing sense of unease in all about the direction the country was heading.

Hooley's Washington staff was critical in assisting her with the incredibly complex task of handling her full legislative plate. Ted Piper, who we've heard from numerous times here, worked in her Washington office. 

 Ted Piper with his fiancee in a photo sent to me last April. He now works in Washington for the Government Affairs Department for generic drug manufacturers.

But after all that, Hooley still had to attend--and closely--to the interests of her constituents, the people of the Fifth Congressional District of Oregon somehow finding priority amid all that. That's where the Salem office came into place; it's where Timm worked with a crew of others. 

 That's Salem district staffer Jeannie Berg making a last-minute adjustment  to a display prior to a speech by Hooley on her 2007 Willamette River initiative.

We know very little about Timm's actual work in Hooley's office outside of the testimony to Timm offered by Hooley at his memorial service, and a few messages from co-workers shared here. We know that Hooley cared deeply for Timm and was much appreciative of Timm's unremitting efforts to help the neediest of her constituents. In the first weeks after his death, several staffers wrote notes to me expressing shock at his loss and commending him for being such a friend and mentor, the go-to guy for computer fixes.

One co-worker had written,  

A congressional office is rarely the first resource people think to contact when troubles arise. Timm was often the last stop for those who called or stopped by and had lost all hope. I'm talking about the completely destitute, the homeless, the working poor, the mentally ill ... the truly invisible people we all know are there. He was an unfailing comfort to them. His work here was profound. I can still see him hunched over his desk searching for an answer to their misery. Just by watching and listening, what I learned will last a lifetime. I know I risk sounding silly, but if you knew Timm, it isn't: By comforting those in need, by being selfless, we are raising humanity. I know this was a product of his faith. He lived it in every aspect of his life.

Giffords's 20-year-old intern Daniel Hernandez rushed to the Congresswoman's aid immediately after she had been shot and stayed with her until help arrived.

That comment makes me think of Daniel Hernandez, the intern who is credited with saving Gabrielle Gifford's life by rushing to her aid immediately after she was shot. A Time Magazine post told it this way:

Hernandez arrived at the "Congress on Your Corner" event around 10 a.m. While signing people in to speak with the Congresswoman, he heard Loughner's first shots. "I immediately knew that if there was a target, she would likely be it," he says. "I tuned everything out and started going into critical-thinking mode, which was that you need to get whoever's still alive some help until EMTs arrive."

After checking two or three people for pulses on his way to Giffords, Hernandez, a large man, ran to the Congresswoman, who was slumped over and on her own. Immediately he thought that the head injury might cause her to choke on her own blood, so he held her up and stanched the bleeding with his hand until employees from inside the nearby grocery store brought him clean smocks. He stayed there until emergency services arrived. "I can't tell you how long it was," he says. "It felt like an infinity."

Hernandez stayed with Giffords and held her hand, telling her to squeeze if she was in pain, which she did. He rode with her in the ambulance and explained what was going on while trying to contact her husband Mark Kelly and her parents. "The only thing that really sticks out," Hernandez says, reflecting on the day, "is when I talked to Gabby and let her know that I was going to get ahold of Mark, when I mentioned Mark and her parents, she squeezed my hand extra tight.

As Darlene said in her elegy to Timm at his memorial service in April 2008, Timm's most special gift was his virtual leap into action to help others. "Who now will reach out first?" she asked. Daniel Hernandez is one of the persons who answered that question. 

And another one unwilling to call himself a hero.

* * *

Gabe Zimmerman, Gabrielle Giffords's community outreach director who was killed in the Jan. 8 attack, here listens to Kevin Rasch, the developer of a new Solar Park to produce renewable energy supplies in Benson, AZ.

I also thought of Timm in Gabe Zimmerman, Giffords's 30-year-old community outreach director and the only member of the staff, so far, to have died as a result of the attack. (Two others of her staff were released from the hospital last week, and as of this writing, Giffords's condition has been upgraded from critical to serious as she shows amazing progress recovering from a bullet wound to the brain.) Only 30 years old, Zimmerman was described by one as "an old soul," matured beyond his years. The things he was passionate about are so reminiscent of Timm: had a master's in social work -- a degree Timm hoped to one day complete; he was devoted, to helping the neediest of Giffords's district; he was a voracious reader of history; he was engaged to be married. A co-worker said, "he was mostly a very happy and optimistic and very caring person." 

And, like Timm, gone way too soon.

* * *

Sarah Hummel Rajca, a Tucson district staffer for Giffords who also served as event photographer.

I saw an interview on PBS with Sarah Hummel Rajca, Giffords's district staffer in charge of immigration and veterans affairs who was also responsible for photo ops. A young woman, probably still in her 20s (the ableness of such youth in these high-priority occupations is encouraging), I saw Timm in her function, taking up the camera work as a surprise added bonus to former Rep. Hooley. The legacy of Timm's photo archive is abundant with pictures of official events, the largest collection coming from a two-day jaunt down the Willamette River as part of the unveiling of Rep. Hooley's Willamette River United Act, an initiative to enlist the federal government's help in improving the river and surrounding communities. (For my post on that event, see "A River Ran Through Him".) 

Timm only stepped out from behind the camera a few times to be photographed with his fellow staff, but every picture of his boss at work shows a person deeply engaged with the work of service. And Timm was right there, too.

I'll end this post with some photos Timm took of Hooley as she was engaged in the work of putting a local face to her lawmaking work in Washington. Giffords reminds me so much of Hooley - a visage of hard-working, quick-to-smile, earnest and genuine compassion. Such faces make you believe all is not lost in Washington, not with such positive energies at work.

* * *

Finally, I heard that the organs of the youngest shooting victim, 9-year-old Christina Green, were donated to a child in the Boston area. Timm's organs were also harvested after his death, and his eyes provided sight to two individuals.

Christina's death was perhaps the most tragic -- a child born on Sept. 11, 2001, a member of her elementary school council, the only girl on her baseball team, who loved animals - she wanted to become a vet -- and passionate about dancing. A witness says that Christina was beaming where she stood, right behind Rep. Giffords, just about to meet her when the shooting began.

Her gaze of excitement to be a part of the solution is all I can see. The events which immediately followed are blacked out.

When I think of Timm, I see him with his clear blue eyes wide open for the next needy case, the next photo op, the next foray out into the grand Western wilderness. What followed on April 18, 2008 is part of the same nothing I can't account for.

* * *

In God's economy, nothing is wasted. But that doesn't keep all of this from hurting in old, deep ways. We can pray for Rep. Giffords's continued miraculous recovery, and for Giffords's staff who are soldiering on. We can pray for the relatives of loved ones also killed in the shooting, for the healing of the Tuscon community where such outrage questioned so much about the dailiness of existence. (Who wouldn't have been heading to the grocery store on a Saturday, wandering over to check out a political meet-and-greet, only to be met with an eruption of bloody rage?) We can pray for our violent, gun-toting country (Arizona has some of the most lax gun laws in the country, with just about anyone permitted to carry a concealed weapon).

We should also pray for the killer, that justice be accomplished in a way far more merciful than he probably deserve. If not that, we can pray for a health care system more capable of identifying and treating the growing number of mentally ill youth.

And then faith must get to work. And as President Obama said in his eloquent eulogy in Tucson last week, we must do what we can, in the memory of those who have been lost, to improve the general weal. "In Christina we see all of our children," the president said. "I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it."

It's comforting, in a way, that Timm didn't live to see all this, but that isn't the right sort of comfort. The events of Jan. 8 could easily have occurred at any time and place where Rep. Hooley, as the face of Washington at home, was present. Timm could have found himself in the same line of fire. And I believe he would have jumped into the fray, for better or worse, helping however he could. Or more probably, as a distant relative of that cruel intimacy, having worked in the same environment, called or emailed his former co-workers to comfort, rant, and promise to do what he could to make this country live up to a 9-year-old's dream of democracy, a girl born not on the Fourth of July but a day when American unity and valor was most called upon.

Timm would have lived up to the call, I'm sure; all we have now is fading evidence that he lived up to it when he was among us. 

White House staff join President and Michelle Obama for a minute's silence on Jan. 10 to remember the victims of the Tucson shooting. 

 Staffers and a few members of Congress joined too on the steps of the Capital in non-partisan solidarity expressing their sympathies for Rep. Giffords, her staff, and the other victims of the shooting. 

Rachel Cooper-Blackmore, 9, adds a note to a make-shift memorial at Mesa Verde Elementary in Tucson, where massacre victim Christina Taylor Green was a third-grader.