Obama to participate in Ariz. memorial

Obama to the nation: We can be better than this
Summoning the soul of a nation, President Barack Obama on Wednesday implored Americans to honor those slain and injured in the Arizona shootings by becoming better people, telling a polarized citizenry that it is time to talk with each other “in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.” Following a Hospital bedside visit with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the target of the Assassination, he said: “She knows we’re here, and she knows we love her.” In an electrifying mo...

Obama leads memorial for Tucson shooting
President Barack Obama led a national outpouring of grief while calling for unity at an emotional memorial after a shooting that unleashed fierce debate about inflammatory political Rhetoric. In a Speech repeatedly interrupted by applause for those who tackled the gunman -- and the announcement that a US lawmaker who was shot in the head had opened her eyes -- Obama said the attack must not lead to new divisions. "At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -- at a time when w...

Obama Urges Nation to Honor Youngest Arizona Victim
Thursday, January 13, 2011 By Gillian Flaccus and Julie Pace, Associated Press President Barack Obama speaks at a memorial service for the Victims of the Tucson shootings at McKale Center on the University of Arizona campus Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Tucson, Ariz. (AP) - President Obama exhorted Americans to refrain from partisan bickering and urged the country embrace the idealistic vision of Democracy held by 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green...

Obama to be nation's consoler at memorial service
WASHINGTON—Searching for unity out of tragedy, President Barack Obama will honor the Victims of the Arizona Mass Shooting in personal terms and remind those in grief that an entire nation is with them. The president is again stepping into his role as national consoler, a test of leadership that comes with the job. His mission at Wednesday's memorial is to uplift and rally, not to examine political Incivility. Set to speak during an evening gathering in Tucson, Ariz., Obama will remember t...

At Arizona memorial, Obama urges a discussion that 'heals'
TUCSON, Ariz. — President Barack Obama played the part of "healer in chief" Wednesday night, honoring the Victims of Saturday's Mass Shooting while seeking to calm an increasingly angry political debate, urging all Americans to stop pointing fingers and "make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.'' "I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today, and will stand b...

Obama Calls for Unity to Prevail Over Divisive Rhetoric
Friends of the accused killer, Jared Lee Loughner, keep using the same words to guess at his reasons for gunning down a congresswoman, several Retirees and a nine-year-old girl in a Safeway Parking Lot. "He loves causing chaos," a former target-shooting buddy told one reporter. "Mainly to just promote chaos," echoed another High School pal. On Wednesday night, President Obama addressed Loughner's alleged crime before a crowd of 14,000 in Tucson, Arizona. The Speech was watched by millions of ...

Obama Calls for Unity to Prevail Over Divisive Rhetoric (Time.com)
Friends of the accused killer, Jared Lee Loughner, keep using the same words to guess at his reasons for gunning down a congresswoman, several Retirees and a nine-year-old girl in a Safeway Parking Lot. "He loves causing chaos," a former target-shooting buddy told one reporter. "Mainly to just promote chaos," echoed another High School pal. On Wednesday night, President Obama addressed Loughner's alleged crime before a crowd of 14,000 in Tucson, Arizona. The Speech was watched by millions of ...

Tucson shootings: Let us heal together, Obama says at memorial event
Tucson - President Obama comforted a community suffused with grief and summoned the nation to recommit to a more civil public discourse as he delivered a eulogy Wednesday evening urging Americans to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds." This Story Tucson shootings: Let us heal together, Obama says at memorial event Sheriff releases past reports involving Loughner Obama: Gabby opened her eyes Hero intern Daniel Hernandez talks with The Post Obama Tucso...

Obama leads memorial for Tucson shooting (AFP)
Tucson, Arizona (AFP) – President Barack Obama led a national outpouring of grief while calling for unity at an emotional memorial after a shooting that unleashed fierce debate about inflammatory political Rhetoric. In a Speech repeatedly interrupted by applause for those who tackled the gunman -- and the announcement that a US lawmaker who was shot in the head had opened her eyes -- Obama said the attack must not lead to new divisions. "At a time when our discourse has become so sh...

Obama leads memorial for Tucson shooting
President Barack Obama led a national outpouring of grief while calling for unity at an emotional memorial after a shooting that unleashed fierce debate about inflammatory political Rhetoric. In a Speech repeatedly interrupted by applause for those who tackled the gunman -- and the announcement that a US lawmaker who was shot in the head had opened her eyes -- Obama said the attack must not lead to new divisions. "At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -- at a time when we ...

Obama to Americans: 'We can be better'
TUCSON, Ariz.  — President Barack Obama mourned Victims of the Tucson Shooting Spree Wednesday and urged Americans not to let a political debate over the tragedy be used as "one more occasion to turn on one another." In a Speech at a service for those killed in a weekend massacre that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords gravely wounded, the president appealed for national unity and soul-searching after the shootings. He urged Americans to "expand our moral imaginations" and "sharpen our ins...

Obama urges nation to honor youngest Ariz. victim (AP)
TUCSON, Ariz. – President Obama exhorted Americans to refrain from partisan bickering and urged the country embrace the idealistic vision of Democracy held by 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, the youngest Arizona Shooting Victim and an aspiring politician who is set to be buried Thursday in the first of half-a-dozen Funerals. Speaking to an arena audience of about 14,000 and even more in a nearby football stadium and at homes across the country, Obama drew on themes of unity, patriotis...

President Obama Offers Healing: Gabrielle Giffords "Has Opened Her Eyes"
In remarks to a crowd of 14,000 at the University of Arizona, President Barack Obama announced, with authorization from Astronaut Mark Giffords, the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, that following his visit to her in the Hospital where she lay attempting to recuperate from a point-blank gunshot wound to the head last Saturday that "Gabby has opened her eyes" for the first time since being shot, he delightedly repeated that "Gabby opened her eyes!" The address was over 30 mi...

Obama saw speech 'on a lot of different levels'
In preparing his address to the nation, President Obama thought about Saturday's Mass Shooting not just as a chief executive, but as a parent and as a friend to one of the wounded, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. "He's been thinking about this on a lot of different levels," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. The result turned out to be moving eulogies to the six Americans who died in the shooting, a stirring tribute to wounded-but-recovering Giffords, and a plaintive call for more civil...

Obama calls for unity, humility at Tucson memorial
At a memorial for the Victims of the Mass Shooting in Tucson, Ariz., Saturday, President Obama sought to move beyond finger-pointing to healing. He said of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who was killed: 'I want to live up to her expectations.' Speaking at a memorial service at the University of Arizona in Tucson, President Obama honored the Victims of last weekend’s shooting rampage in that city, sharing thoughts about those who had died and lauding the heroic behavior displayed durin...

Obama calls for unity, humility at Tucson memorial (The Christian Science Monitor)
Washington – Speaking at a memorial service at the University of Arizona in Tucson, President Obama honored the Victims of last weekend’s shooting rampage in that city, sharing thoughts about those who had died and lauding the heroic behavior displayed during and after the attack. Mr. Obama also spoke of the ideal of representative Democracy; Saturday’s shooting had taken place at a meet-and-greet for constituents - called “Congress on your Corner’’

Report: John Boehner Refused Air Force Ride To Tuscon, Hosts RNC Party Instead
Politico reports that newly elected Speaker of the House John Boehner declined an invitation to join President Obama on Air Force One to attend last night’s memorial in Tuscon, Arizona. Instead, Boehner was reportedly hosting a reception for RNC chair Candidate Maria Cino while other Washington dignitaries paid their respect for the heroes and Victims from the Arizona Shooting Tragedy of the last weekend. Writing for Politico, John Bresnahan reported yesterday: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio...

A Memorial in Arizona
One of the best things about the memorial service, at the University of Arizona, for the Victims of the Tucson shooting, was an aspect that also threw some people: the cheering. There was a lot of it. But it was hard, most of the time, to tell just who it was for: Daniel Hernandez, the intern who helped keep Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords alive, got the greatest applause when he deflected the praise to other people. During Obama’s Speech, it may have been when he said that today, for the...

Hateful people....people who protest funerals
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A Kansas church that pickets the Funerals of Soldiers and blames their deaths on the country's tolerance of Homosexuality now says it won't Protest the Funerals of any Victims of Arizona's Mass Shooting. Shirley Phelps-Roper, of Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church, says her church has agreed to avoid Thursday's funeral of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green in exchange for live Radio Interviews in Canada and Arizona. The church also promised to not Protest the funeral of U.S...

For Once, Washington Gets it Right
Anyone walking around Capitol Hill this week would have been struck by the stillness and quiet -- and especially by how vividly this contrasted with the acrimony swirling online, on Cable News, and on Talk Radio over who should bear the blame for last weekend's massacre in Tucson that gravely wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords and killed six others. Critics like to claim that Washington is the catalyst for this sort of rage. But right now, they'd be hard-pressed to turn up much evidence....

Obama appeals for unity as shot congresswoman opens eyes
US PRESIDENT Barack Obama appealed for unity at a memorial service for those attacked in the Arizona shooting rampage and implored a divided America to honour them by becoming a better country. • President Obama talks to NASA Astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Picture: Getty Mr Obama also revealed that following his Wednesday Hospital visit with Representative Gabrielle Giffords, she had opened her eyes for the first time since being shot point-blank in the head i...

Grieving Tucson braces for victims' funerals
By Tim Gaynor TUCSON, Arizona | Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:05am EST TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - She sang like an angel in the church girls' choir, was a top Student, and was gunned down at nine years old as she went to see government in action on a Tucson street corner. Christina Green, the youngest Victim of a Shooting Spree last Saturday that claimed six lives and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords battling for her life, will be the first to be buried on Thursday as Tucson grieves for its dead. "She show...

Obama to Be Nation's Consoler at Memorial Service
WASHINGTON (AP) — Searching for unity out of tragedy, President Barack Obama will honor the Victims of the Arizona Mass Shooting in personal terms and remind those in grief that an entire nation is with them. The president is again stepping into his role as national consoler, a test of leadership that comes with the job. His mission at Wednesday's memorial is to uplift and rally, not to examine political Incivility. [Photo Gallery: Gabrielle Giffords Shooting in Arizona.] Set to speak du...

Obama to be nation's consoler at memorial service
(01-12) 07:28 PST WASHINGTON, CA (AP) -- Searching for unity out of tragedy, President Barack Obama will honor the Victims of the Arizona Mass Shooting in personal terms and remind those in grief that an entire nation is with them. The president is again stepping into his role as national consoler, a test of leadership that comes with the job. His mission at Wednesday's memorial is to uplift and rally, not to examine political Incivility. Set to speak during an evening gathering in Tucson, Ari...

Obama Pays Tribute to Victims, Gives an Update on Giffords
During his Speech at Wednesday night's memorial service at a University of Arizona gymnasium in Tucson, President Obama honored the memories of those slain in Saturday's shooting and urged the country to move toward civility in order to honor those killed. From the start, the president's tone was conciliatory. "There is nothing i can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts," he assured the crowd. "But know this: The hopes of the nation are here tonight." Obama chose to focus on ...