Those are the words of President Obama, delivered last night during a memorial tribute in Tucson, to the victims of the Arizona shooting disaster. The president named each victim one by one and urged the country to put aside its differences and come together despite the partisan rancor within our current day politics.
“At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized — at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do — it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds,” he said.
Many political pundits were somehow expecting a solemn memorial service, similar to the one following the Oklahoma City bombing during the Clinton administration. Instead, Arizonans felt more of a need to celebrate and to cheer from the moment Mr. Obama took the stage, which made the occasion seem more like a campaign rally than a memorial. Those cheers couldn’t have been more boisterous than when Mr. Obama revealed the news that on that same night, gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes for the first time since the deadly shooting rampage.
The overjoyed crowd screamed, cried and burst into wild applause at the unexpected and extremely positive news, as First Lady Michelle Obama wept while clutching the hand of Gifford’s astronaut husband, Mark Kelly.
“I can tell you this — she knows we’re here and she knows we love her and she knows that we will be rooting for her throughout what will be a difficult journey,” Obama said.
The revelation of Giffords’ progress came minutes after Mr. and Mrs. Obama and a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers visited the Democratic congresswoman at her hospital bed. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who traveled aboard Air Force One with Obama, was in the room the moment Giffords opened here eyes. “We had been telling her that she was inspiring the country with her courage and that we couldn’t wait to take her out to pizza and a weekend away,” Gillibrand said. “Then after she heard our voices and the encouragement of Mark and her parents, she struggled briefly and opened her eyes for the very first time. It was a miracle to witness.”
The president capped off the memorial evening, with remarks about the youngest victim in the shootings — 9-year-old Christina Taylor-Greene. “I want to live up to her expectations,” Mr. Obama said. “I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us — we should do everything we can do to make sure we live up to our children’s expectations.” Christina was 1 of 50 babies born on September 11, 2001, and was featured in a book about children born during the worst terrorist attack on our shores in U.S history. Among the tributes written to Christina in that book, was a wish for her life that read “I hope you jump in rain puddles.”
Said Mr. Obama: “If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today.”
