I tuned into the 11 o’clock news Monday night to see Congressional leaders applauding the Herculean return to the floor of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.  Speaker Nancy Pelosi pointed out that Giffords was in the house. The House applause could make a viewer forget that the federal lawmakers were in a last-ditch effort to decide the fate of the debt ceiling. It was the reason Giffords was in Washington, to cast her vote to help end the stalemate which has made our Congress look like children in a sandbox deciding who gets all the shovels regardless if there are any pails left to fill!  It’s left our President looking like a schoolteacher who lost control of study hall.

And there she was. Gabby Giffords attempting a wave, smiling at colleagues looking so different than she did the day before that day in January when an assassin tried to end her life and ended others instead.

So the debt ceiling was raised by an amount most Americans will never be able to fathom. Stock markets did not stop dealing. Global trade continued and the commuter trains and buses took us to work this morning.

But what does it mean to all of us? It doesn't change anything right now. It means that our economy is still in a terrible way. Layoffs have not stopped. Our neighbors and family members are still out of work. Our college kids cannot find their first jobs. Our 401Ks have been diminished. Health care is still skyrocketing and the now-empowered Republicans who vowed to repeal the nacent health-care reform law may use their strength to get their way and hurt the citizenry even more. Taxes continue to rise on property and income. Schools have smaller budgets. Medicare and Medicaid remain on edge.

Read More on the Debt Ceiling Deal in the New York Times

And yet this morning, we choose to remember the strength of one woman proving government matters, that the only way to get the bullies out of the sandbox is to show them no fear. She was known to hate the nasty mudslinging and backbiting of this Congress. This was her way to say it should stop now for the good of all of us.

In the next news cycle, Giffords' colleagues fielded questions about whether she will be fit enough to run for reelection in her next bid.

"We're certainly getting her ready to make sure she can run for reelection at the point that they're ready to decide on that," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, one of Working Mother’s Most Powerful Moms in Congress and a close friend of Giffords, said Tuesday. "Her supporters in Arizona and across the country, her colleagues, are making sure she doesn't have to start from scratch,” told a TV audience on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-hosted by working mom, Mika Brzezinski.

Should Gabby Giffords extend her energy to help keep America moving forward?

Read earlier post about Giffords' shooting: The Congresswoman and the Little Girl