Expressing Sense of House Regarding Arizona Shooting

Floor Speech

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Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

On behalf of the people of the Fifth Congressional District of Minnesota, let me offer my heartfelt condolences to those brave Americans who lost their lives in the tragedy at Tucson, and let me offer wishes of a very speedy recovery for those people who are wounded, including our own friend and colleague, Gabby Giffords. And also, let me offer congratulations to those heroic people who jumped up to help their fellow Americans at a time of tragedy and need.

It would be very human for anyone to be a little bit shy about coming to a public event after hearing about a tragedy like this. But I think that in the spirit of Gabby Giffords, we should reaffirm and rededicate ourselves to public access, public engagement.

I don't think it would be honoring her great work that she and we expect for her to carry on if we didn't get right back out there and engage in a spirited conversation about the shape and destiny of our democracy. And so I think it is important to make a very bold statement that we will reaffirm our dedication to having a robust, open access, and free democracy by not letting forces of fear and hatred, desperation and madness deter us from this very important and noble enterprise.

God bless America, and we wait for and we look forward to a speedy recovery from our colleague, Gabrielle Giffords.

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