Watch Gabrielle Giffords Lead The 2012 DNC Pledge Of Allegiance

There's no asking much more of Gabrielle Giffords than what she's been put through since January 2011. Last night, she made not merely her home state, not merely the Democratic Party, but her country proud.

About 21 months removed from nearly being assassinated during a public appearance, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) took the stage at Thursday night's Democratic National Convention finale and opened the proceedings by leading the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The former congresswoman was led to the stage by friend, colleague and DNC chairperson Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who this past January read Giffords' letter of resignation from Congress to the House floor on her colleague's behalf. The gunshot she sustained to the head on Jan. 8, 2011 at a Tucson, Ariz. supermarket attack that left six people dead has left her with impaired mobility. Even after she began, she stumbled across the odd word.

In the end, she was thanked by a thunderous standing ovation - proof that even a bullet can't break some things.

A final note to both sides of the aisle, before adjourning to the inspiring video of Giffords' Pledge: please, a little perspective. Jared Lee Loughner, the young man who shot 19 people that day in Tucson, was described by people who knew him as not necessarily "left" nor "right" but anti-government, in general. Nothing our present government has done or is likely to do in the conceivable future merits violent hostility toward either side.

Elections tend to make cesspools of antagonism out of social media. Interactions take on less the character of intelligent and civil discourse, and more the appearance of locking Ohio State and Michigan fans into a bomb shelter together. Hell, the two national conventions themselves are ultimately little more than three-day pep rallies for people who dress in fine suits rather than beer helmets and two-tone body paint.

Keep things in perspective, folks. Nothing said by Rush Limbaugh, nor Keith Olbermann, nor Sean Hannity or George Clooney is worth burning a bridge or taking a life.