I have a new woman to look up to, and she's 7 years old. Lives in Detroit, MI.

A 7-year-old-girl is being hailed as an “angel from heaven” and a hero for jumping in front of an enraged gunman, who pumped six bullets into the child as she used her body as a shield to save her mother’s life.

Alexis Goggins, a first-grader at Campbell Elementary School, is in stable condition at Children’s Hospital in Detroit recovering from gunshot wounds to the eye, left temple, chin, cheek, chest and right arm.

“She is an angel from heaven,” said Aisha Ford, a family friend for 15 years who also was caught up in the evening of terror.

[Crossposted from Zuky.]

When I stopped blogging not too long ago, the Jena Six case was one reason among many that I decided to quit. I was disheartened a little, even as the petition kept growing and the images were spreading. I was worried that the case wasn't sexy enough, and I was afraid to do more work because it seemed like my work among those I considered my peers wasn't honored. If I casually did something reckless or made myself scarce from a project, it eventually got done. I felt like one of those armchair revolutionaries, obsolete, and I wanted to celebrate finishing my first year of law school, but I couldn't. I wanted to run down to Jena and play Perry Mason after a tan and a sex change, but I couldn't. At the same time, I felt knots in my stomach because of how late the U.S. seemed to pick up the case in its own backyard.