On the recordJanuary 12, 2011
I join with my colleagues today to honor the 6 who died and the 14 who were wounded, including our own colleague Gabrielle Giffords, in the horror which unfolded last Saturday morning in Tucson, Arizona. I was at home Saturday checking my iPhone when I saw the shocking news of the shootings and that Congresswoman Giffords and her staff were among the victims. What I read was hard to comprehend. She and her staff were doing their jobs, back in her district on a weekend, meeting with constituents in the finest example of representative government. And in a split second, the lives of those there were forever changed, and in a larger context, all of our lives have changed. My heart and prayers go out to those who lost their lives and to their families. There was 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, there to meet her representative because she wanted to become involved in government; Dorothy Morris, there with her husband of over 50 years, George, who was critically injured trying to shield his wife from the shooting; federal district Judge John Roll, who had just come from Mass, which he attended daily; Phyllis Schneck, age 79, who was spending the winter in Arizona; and Dorwan Stoddard, a 76-year-old retired construction worker, who shielded his wife Mavy, who sustained injuries in the shooting.
