Together We Thrive: The Memorial Service Open Thread
Just a special live blog in the comments of tonight’s memorial service in Tuscon, Arizona. It has just begun, and coverage is on MSNBC and CNN (presumably Fox News as well).
Of all the fines levied against him, how much will Donald Trump actually pay?
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Daniel Hernandez is seated at the President’s right, and Gabby Gifford’s husband is seated to Michelle Obama’s left in the front row.
Sorry about the double post. I erased mine. I read that the service is absolutely full and there are people in overflow rooms.
It looks like it.
Dr. Carlos Gonzales of the University of Arizona, a half Mexican and half Native American who is a fifth generation American (longer than my family has been here), is giving the opening blessing.
And now the National Anthem
I can’t believe Speaker Boehner turned down a ride to the memorial service to attend a RNC fundraiser. What a jerk.
I read that. I will offer no comment because it speaks for itself.
Daniel Hernandez is being honored now. LONG standing ovation. Sandra Day O’Connor is to Mr. Hernandez’s right.
I’m getting geared up seeing Daniel Hernandez and the crowd reaction to him.
Am I just not seeing him? I haven’t seen John McCain. Is he there?
Journalist who have read a preview of Obama’s speech say it’s great but get your hankies.
I saw Cindy McCain, but I have not seen John. He was with the President earlier during the hospital visit. So he must be there, we are just not seeing him.
The President made me tear up just once, during his Philadelphia speech.
Daniel Hernandez rejects the hero label and applies it to others. True class. But I reject that. You are a hero Daniel.
Colley is classy.
Tepid applause for Gov Brewer.
Governor Brewer is on now. A good speech so far.
Hernandez was great. Great poise for a 20-year-old.
Colley just proved that he is a racist. Truly evil.
Curley is a pig. It’s time we challenge WGMD’s license and boycott those companies who advertise on his show.
Apparently some are complaining about applause. I don’t see a problem with celebrating the lives of the victims and the survivors.
This is not a funeral. This is a memorial, and it is fine to clap, it is fine to cheer. There is no political bent to the cheering or clapping. Brewer was applauded as was Napolitano. Brewer was cheered as was Napolitano. Hernandez was cheered. It is not partisan. People want to cheer and clap rather than cry. I see nothing wrong with it.
Can conservatives just stop complaining, just this once? I mean, really, just shut up and listen. Shut up and celebrate the heros and celebrate the lives of the victims. Just this once, shut the fuck up.
I went to a funeral for a dear friend of mine from the Sussex Family Y a few months ago. We laughed, we applauded, we cried. It’s what he would have wanted and it was good.
And I agree with DD – the detractors just need to STFU.
I would also note that the cheering is from the students. Students tend to shout and cheer.
When I’m gone, I hope that people laugh and cheer at my funeral.
I’m already tearing up.
God, he has grayed in office. Why anyone would want to be President is beyond me.
Text of Obama’s speech.
I love how personal President Obama’s speech is. So very appropriate to talk about the victims. And yes, I am tearing up.
wow!!!!!!!
Amazing!
Michelle and Mark are crying, as the President announced that Gabby opened her eyes for the first time during the hospital visit.
I’m full on crying with the news that she opened her eyes.
The President is so inspiring. His speech is setting just the right tone. We need more of this.
Obama is ablibbing from the text.
Someone explain while clapping through this part is bad.
Shot of Pelosi crying
It isn’t bad at all, UI. It’s a celebration of lives lost and lives still with us. It’s a celebration of the heart.
I can’t believe she opened her eyes! We’ve been through a traumatic brain injury in our family. We have lived this up close and personal. Her progress is amazing.
I’ll admit, I too was tearing up.
This speech is masterful, he really navigated the minefield about who’s to blame.
This is an amazing speech.
This is Presidential.
It is amazing pandora. She’s already doing complex actions (thumbs up, v sign, adjusting gown).
His best since Philadelphia.
I would hate to be President, knowing that some tragedy will almost certainly occur that will have to be addressed and to some extent rectified.
What matters is how well we have loved! Great words.
Oh hell, I’m crying again.
The core message of President Obama:
You see, when a tragedy like this strikes, it is part of our nature to demand explanations – to try to impose some order on the chaos, and make sense out of that which seems senseless. Already we’ve seen a national conversation commence, not only about the motivations behind these killings, but about everything from the merits of gun safety laws to the adequacy of our mental health systems. Much of this process, of debating what might be done to prevent such tragedies in the future, is an essential ingredient in our exercise of self-government.
But 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.
Scripture tells us that there is evil in the world, and that terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding. In the words of Job, “when I looked for light, then came darkness.” Bad things happen, and we must guard against simple explanations in the aftermath.
For the truth is that none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. 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.
Yes, we must examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of violence in the future.
But what we can’t do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other.
Obama is choking up when speaking of Christina Green.
Oh my, make sure debate is “worthy” of those who were lost. Powerful and important words.
Obama: if this tragedy causes reflection and debate let’s make sure it is deserving of those we lost.
What a beautiful speech. I can’t imagine anyone having a problem with it. Yes, yes, I know what’s coming… and it ain’t graciousness or civility. Tea partiers are boringly predictable.
Sweet Jesus, this is gold.
Amazing.
Wow. Great speech. Very moving. Very heartfelt.
Awesome.
Good speech! That guy should run for President or something.
Chris Coons: “Wonderfully touching speech by President Obama tonight. Thank you, Mr. President. Amazing.”
That was the perfect speech.
That was really moving and just fantastic.
He struck the right tone and hopefully, some of our friends on the right will listen to what he said.
I am constantly amazed that we as a country somehow elected the right guy for the times. And to be nonpartisan, or bipartisan, I would say the same thing with regards to President Reagan, who I think was the right guy for the times in the 1980’s. And no, I am not speaking of greed and the excess of the 1980’s, but rather of Reagan’s negotiations with Gorbachev to end the Cold War. I don’t know if any other man or woman could have done that. I think the same thing was true in the 1990’s for President Clinton, in the 1960’s for President Kennedy, in the 1950’s with President Eisenhower, and in the 1930’s and 1940’s with President Roosevelt. It is comforting, I guess.
If Gabby can open her eyes, than maybe we can too.
The bile being spewed on Facebook by right wingers about Obama’s speech is revolting.
I am not going to think about those right wingers. I am hopeful and inspired right now. I will not let their hate poison me. It will only poison them. One cannot have such hate within them and be whole.
I don’t understand what wingers would complain about in that speech.
I can only imagine that they did not listen to it. No one who actually heard it can criticize it.
And it was not a political speech. If they did hear it and are still critical, then that says something very dire about the person making criticism.
I heard some saying it was too long. It didn’t seem long.
He has given many good speeches before. This was his first great one.
Obama is honest, humble, forthright. Everything that Republicans recoil from. No wonder they hate his guts. As for me, I finally get that this stance is not a political pose or a calculated strategy, but who he is. Obama honestly believes in his heart that there is goodness in his political opposition that he can get to if he works hard enough. I happen to disagree with him on that point, but I admire him for his convictions.
here here, jason.
Watching that speech I realized how cynical i have become. I caught myself thinking so many times “that’ll show the right wing”. Picking out zingers that proved just how awful the GOP is and hoping the camera would pan over to McCain either sleeping or tweeting.
It was, however, Obama visibly choking up when talking about Christina Green that broke through. It was shocking. The fact that Mr Cool was barely keeping it together really drove home the message of what a horrible state this country is in.
I’m going to make a solid attempt to embrace the message of the speech and try not to see/describe whole groups of my fellow Americans as enemies. No doubt i still think the true Tbags are poisonous for the nation and will continue to do whatever i can to bring about the end of that movement, but fighting vitriol with vitriol is something I will try to stop doing.
At the end of the day, I agree with the president’s view that most, MOST, people are good. Rush Limbaugh is not. Sarah Palin is not, Glenn Beck is not. But I think Boehner (for example) is, and if the work that has to be done is convincing Boehner that he is his own man, unbeholden to the dictates of Daddy Rush, Brother Glenn, and $t $arah, it is a fight worth fighting. Nowadays i think everyone just becomes the worst version of their political leanings. Right wingers becomes Sarah Palin in a fight, we become Keith Olberman…. yes I know he is smarter and nicer and uses facts and reality, but it is still a “im right, you’re evil” combative stance.
Yes, the republicans created this atmosphere. Sarah and Fox news did it for money, McCain and Demint did it for political gain. MBcach, because she is insane. They started it, but WE can stop it. That is my take-away from the speech.
Spot on, Ben. For all the fun we make of Speaker Boehner, and for how wrong he is on policy, I actually do believe he has a heart and a soul, and, as Reagan said of Gorbachev, we can do business with him. Plus, no one who cries as much as he does can be that evil. 😉