Expressing Sense of House Regarding Arizona Shooting

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, the horror of Saturday's bloodshed in Arizona, the senseless loss of life, and the cowardly attack on GABBY GIFFORDS has for many Americans raised the question of whether we as a Nation have lost our way. Many wonder, if an act so benign as GABBY's effort to listen to her neighbors in the Eighth Congressional District of Arizona can be the target of such violence, whether there is hope and a future for our democracy.

One voice from our recent past suggests there is still hope for that fragile ideal. On April 4, 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy spoke in Indianapolis, Indiana, shortly after the slaying of Martin Luther King at a time when political violence wracked our Nation. This is what he said:

``We have to make an effort in the United States. We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond these difficult times.''

He then said, ``My favorite poem was Aeschylus, and he once wrote, `Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.' ''

He concluded that what we need in the United States is not division. What we need is not hatred. What we need is not violence and lawlessness. It is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another.

GABBY GIFFORDS' work at that Tucson shopping mall on January 8 and all those present and all those victimized by a coward's bullets were affirming Senator Kennedy's vision that peaceful dialogue and understanding is the true calling of the American people, not division and violence.

As one who entered Congress with GABBY in the class of 2006--a tight-knit group that has met every Wednesday over the last 4 years--it has been an honor to watch her on the Armed Services Committee, advocating for the Air Force and for military families. Even during the lame duck session, she was a leader in enacting the GI Bill Patch, which will make sure that the Guard and reservists will not be left out from the GI Bill's educational benefits. She is an extraordinary person this country needs if we are going to overcome the many challenges that we face today.

Madam Speaker, I strongly support passage of this resolution, which is an affirmation that we will not surrender our way of life to the forces of lawlessness and hate.

On behalf of the people of eastern Connecticut, I want to express our awe and reverence to the examples of human courage and excellence which GABBY GIFFORDS and the other victims in Tucson displayed to the world last Saturday.

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