President Barack Obama appealed for unity in the wake of the mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, saying the horrific attack shouldn’t be used to turn Americans against one another even as the nation searches for explanations that may never come.
“None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped those shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind,” Obama said at a memorial service for the six people killed and the 14 wounded in the Jan. 8 rampage. “What we can’t do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other. That we cannot do.” Obama paid tribute to those who were killed in the attacks and lauded those who helped the survivors.
The memorial service was being conducted against a backdrop of partisan skirmishing over political rhetoric and how to interpret the actions of the 22-year-old man accused of the shooting, Jared Lee Loughner. Six people were killed and 14 wounded.
Before the service, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama went to the bedside of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head. They spent about nine minutes with Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, before visiting other patients and family members.
Opening Her Eyes Obama said Giffords opened her eyes for the first time since she’s been hospitalized as he left the room and some of her colleagues from Congress remained.
“For the first time, Gabby opened her eyes,” Obama said prompting cheers and applause. “She knows we’re here.” Obama said it is human nature to demand explanations to “make sense of out of that which seems senseless.” The debates, under way already, about issues from the motivations behind the killings to gun safety laws to the nation’s mental health system are part of the exercise in self-government, he said.
“If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let’s make sure it’s worthy of those we have lost,” Obama said. He denounced the “sharply polarized” political debate country and attempts to place blame for the shooting.
“Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together,” he said.
Filled Arena The arena was filled to capacity with 14,300 for the service with another 10,000 people in an overflow area set up at the university’s football field, according school officials.
The event mixed somber remembrance and a rally-like atmosphere of cheers and clapping. The audience gave a standing ovation to the doctors who treated Giffords as they walked in. Obama drew applause when he arrived as well.
Jerri Boerum, 37, said she kept her children, ages 2, 11 and 12, out of school today to make sure they’d be able to attend the service and hear Obama’s speech.
“I wanted my children to be a part of the healing process,” she said in an interview. “It means a lot that President Obama’s here.” Bipartisan Event Obama traveled with a delegation of officials and a bipartisan group of lawmakers including Attorney General Eric Holder, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Republican Representative Trent Franks of Arizona. Among those in the audience were retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Arizona Senator John McCain.
Holder spoke at the service, as did Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former governor of the state.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, some public officials, including Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, criticized the harsh rhetoric of television and radio talk show hosts and some politicians. Authorities investigating the case haven’t discovered any link to politics in the shooting.
Republican Sarah Palin, while condemning the violence, disputed the notion that the nation’s political rhetoric is overly charged or had any link to the shooting.
“Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence that they purport to condemn,” Palin, the former governor of Alaska and her party’s 2008 vice presidential candidate, said in a video posted on the Internet. “That is reprehensible.” ‘Political Advantage’ Syndicated radio-show host Rush Limbaugh said yesterday that Democrats were seeking “to turn it into a political advantage” and that doing so was “beneath contempt.” Giffords was among 20 Democrats who supported health-care legislation and were targeted for defeat in November’s elections by Palin’s political action committee, SarahPAC, which produced a map with crosshairs superimposed on the lawmakers’ districts.
Giffords, 40, questioned such imagery in an interview with MSNBC last March, saying that “when people do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that action.” The House today adopted a resolution that condemns “in the strongest possible terms the horrific attack” and praises the “bravery and quick thinking exhibited by those individuals who prevented the gunman from potentially taking more lives.” It honors the service of Giffords, noting that she recited the First Amendment, which guarantees the right of the public to peaceably assemble, as lawmakers read the U.S. Constitution on the House floor Jan. 6.
—With assistance from Kate Andersen Brower, Mike Dorning and John McCormick in Washington. Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Mark McQuillan.
To contact the reporters on this story: Hans Nichols in Tucson at hnichols2@bloomberg.net; Drew Armstrong in Tucson at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
