As President Obama prepared to head to Arizona
Wednesday, the House of Representatives
convened to consider a resolution honoring the
dead and wounded in the shooting rampage in
Tucson that left six dead and 14 wounded on
Saturday, including Representative Gabrielle
Giffords.
“These are difficult hours for our country,” said
Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio.
With his eyes filled with tears, Mr. Boehner
described the loss of Gabriel Zimmerman, an aide
to Ms. Giffords who was killed in the shooting;
Mr. Boehner called him “a public servant of the
highest caliber” and “one of our own.”
“At the time of the attack, he was engaged in the
most and direct of democratic rituals,” Mr.
Boehner said, “listening to the people, listening to
his neighbors.”
“We are thankful, so thankful, that Gabby is still
with us,” Mr. Boehner added, his eyes welling
anew. “We feel a litany of unwanted emotions
that no resolution could possibly capture,” he
said, sniffling and blowing his nose with a
handkerchief. “We know that we gather here
without distinction of party, the needs of this
institution have always risen above partisanship.”
Later, Mr. Boehner added, “Our hearts are broken
but our spirits are not.”
Mr. Boehner was followed at the microphone by
the Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of California,
who was scheduled to travel with President
Obama to attend a memorial service in Arizona
later in the day.
“Words are inadequate at a time like this, but
nonetheless I hope that it is a comfort to those
who have lost loved ones or who were injured
on Saturday that so many people mourn the
losses, but also pray for the survivors, and also
care for them at this difficult time, ” Ms. Pelosi
said. “I think the resolution, in its description of
what happened and the context of what
happened, is an excellent resolution, and I hope
people will read it and pray over it and be grateful
that we have this opportunity to comment on it. ”
The accused gunman, Jared. L. Loughner, 22, is
in federal custody. He has so far been charged
with two federal counts of murder and three of
attempted murder in the attack, involving the
victims who were federal employees; state
charges are expected to be filed for the shooting
of the other victims.
Doctors said on Tuesday that Ms. Giffords, who
was shot in the head at close range, was making
progress and was able to breathe on her own,
although she remains on a ventilator as a
precaution.
“She has a 101 percent chance of survival,” said
Dr. Peter Rhee, the director of medical trauma
care at the University Medical Center in Tucson,
where Ms. Giffords is being treated. “I can’t tell
whether she’s going to be in a vegetative state. I
hope that she’s not, and I don’t think she will be
in a vegetative state, but I know that she’s not
going to die.”
President Obama will speak on Wednesday
evening at a memorial service for the victims of
the attack. His aides said he would focus on the
theme of service to the country, and not engage
in the debate about whether the state ’s heated
political climate might have played a role in
precipitating the attack.
Meanwhile, across Arizona, there was a flurry of
efforts to address the psychological effects of the
shootings. Two churches in Tucson held
memorial services on Tuesday night, drawing
large crowds.
In Phoenix, the state legislature quickly passed an
emergency law to block members of a
controversial church group that stages protests
outside funerals from getting too close to the
services planned in Tucson.
The measure, which says that protesters must
keep back 300 feet from funerals, is intended to
head off members of the Westboro Baptist
Church in Kansas, who have praised the shooting
and who plan to picket at the funeral on Thursday
of Christina Green, the 9-year-old girl killed in the
incident, and at a service on Friday for John M.
Roll, the Federal District Court judge who was
killed.
“I was physically sick when I heard” about the
Westboro group’s plans, said State Senator
Kyrsten Sinema, who sponsored the measure.
“ Then I decided to do something. Nothing
happens in one day in politics, but this did. This
tragedy is nonpartisan. It ’s human.”
Community volunteers were mobilizing to plan
their own street-side memorial service to counter
the protesters and try to keep them away from
the funerals, with some volunteers planning to
wear angel wings.
Reporting was contributed by Lawrence K.
Altman and Helene Cooper in Washington and
Marc Lacey, Ford Burkhart, Ron Nixon, Lisa
Button, Carli Brosseau, Will Ferguson and Clayton
Norman in Tucson.
Source: Http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/us/politics/13giffords.html?_r=1
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