Yesterday, U.S. president Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attended a memorial service in Tucson, AZ. Where the president visited Congresswoman Gifford in the hospital and remembered the 6 people killed, and 14 wounded during a Jan. 8 shooting spree where Gifford greeted her constituents on Saturday.
“Gabby opened her eyes for the first time,” Obama announced to thunderous applause. Obama was referring to Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford’s, 40, who was shot in the head during an assassination attempt.
“What we can’t do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another,” said Obama.
President Obama praised Daniel Hernandez for aiding Gifford after the shooting. The 20-year-old intern has only worked for Gifford for 5 days and assisted the congresswoman with his first aid skills after she was shot.
Obama concluded his emotional speech by remembering 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green: here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that someday she too might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council; she saw public service as something exciting, something hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.
I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us – we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.
