>> thank you, secretary napolitano. [applause] i am honored now to introduce the leader of the united states department of justice. he is our nation's leading law enforcement official. please welcome the attorney general of the united states, eric holder. [applause] >> thank you. far -- likell reads secondi'll read from

corinthians. since we have the same spirit of faith of his hand that wrote, i believe anso i spoke, we too believe and so we speak, knowing that he who raised thlord jesus will raises also with cheeses and bring us with you into his presence. foit is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may extend thanksgiving to the glory of god. so we do not lose heart, though i our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. for this slight momentary of affliction is preparing us for of gloryal eight

beyond comparison. we let not the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen, are eternal. we know that ifhe earthly 10th we live in is destroyed, we have a building from god, i house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. this is the lords words. [applause] >> i think you can see by ed those who are in the program and

by the many dignitaries and elected officials in the audience how deeply our country was affected by the terrible events last saturday. we are truly honored to have a leader of our great nation with us here tonight. [applause] we are obviously saddened by the circumstances that have brought president and mrs. obama to tucson. but we're comforted, we are comforted by their compassion and inspired by their determination to reach out and help. amera has been blessed through its glorious terry hits in history by committed president's who often in great

personal sacrifice step forward to lead us toetter futures and greater hope. barack obama assumed the presidency at a perilous time in our history. we are fortunate to have someone with his intellect, his energy, and his heart to leave us forward. please welcome the president of the united states, barack obama. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. please be seated.

[cheers and applause] to the families of those we have lost, to all who call them friends, to the students of this university, the pubc servants gathered here, the people of tucson, and the people of arizona -- i have come here tonight as an american who like all americans kneel to pray with you today and will stand by you tomorrow.

there is nothing i can say that hole.ll the sudden in your hearts. but no this -- the hopes of the nation are here tonight. we mourn with you for the fallen, we join you in your grief, and we add our faith to your so that gabrielle to giffords and the other victims of this tragedy will pull through. scripture tells us there is a river whose stream makes glad

the city of god, a holy place where the most holy dwell. god is within her. she will not fall. god willelp her at break of day. on saturday morning, gabby, her staff, and many of her constituents gathered outside a supermarket to exercise their rights to peacefully assemble and free speech. [applause] they were fulfilling a central tenet of the democracy envisioned by our founders. representatives of the people

answering questions to their constituents, who carry their concerns back to our nation's capital. gabby called it congress on your corner. the updated version of government of, and by, and for the people. [applause] and that quintessentially american scene, that was the scene shattered by a gunman's bullets. and the six people who lost their lives on saturday, they too represented what is best in us, what is best in america. judge john roll served our legal

system for nearly 40 years. [applause] a graduate of this university and a graduate of this law school. [applause] judge roll was recommended for the federal bench by john mccain 20 years ago. appointed by george h. w. bush, and rose to become arizona's chief federal judge. [applause] his colleagues describe him as the hardest working judge within the ninth circuit. he was on his way back from attending mass, as he did every day. he decided to stop by and say hi to his representative.

john is survived by his loving wife, maureen. his three sons and his five beautiful grandchildren. [applause] georgian dorothy morris -- george and dorothy morris, dot to her friends, did everything together. their friends call that a 50- year honeymoon. saturday morning, they went by the safe way to hear what their congresswoman hato say. gunfire rang out, and george, the former marine, instinctively shielded his wife. [applause]

both were shot. dot passed away. a new jersey native, phyllis schneck, retired to tucson to beat the snow. in the summer she would return east where world revolved around her three children, the seven grandchildren, and day 2-year- old great granddaughter. she often worked under her favorites tree. she would sell eight friends with the logos of the jets and the giants to give out at the church where she volunteered. a republican, she took a liking to gabby and wanted to get to know her better. [applause]

dorwin and mavy moved apart. they started their own respective families. but when both were widowed, they found their way back. daughter puty's it, to be boyfriend and girlfriend again. you could find them just up the road, helping folks in need at the mountain avenue church of christ. of retired construction worker, dorwin spent his spare -- spare time fixing up the church with his dog, spot. his final act of selfless this was to dive on top of his wife, sacrificing his life for her. [applause]

everything ge zimmerman did, he did with passion. [applause] his true passion was helping pele. heby's outreach director, made the care is of thousands our constituents his own. he saw to it that seniors got to keep medicare benefits that they have earned. that veteransot the metals and care that they deserved. that government was working for ordinary folks. he died doing what he loved, talking with people and seeing how he could help. gabe is survived by his parents, his brother, and his fiancee who he plan to marry next year.

[applause] and then there is 9-year-old christina-taylor green. christina was a a student, a dancer, a gymnast, a swimmer. she decided she wanted to be the first woman to play in the major leagues. as the only girl on her little league team, no one put it past her. [applause] she showed an appreciation for life and common -- uncommon for a girl her age. she told her mother, we are so blessed. she paid those backed by

participating in a charity that helped children who were less fortunate. our hearts are broken by their sudden passing. our hearts are broken. and yet our hearts also have reason for fullness. our hearts are full of hopes and thanks for the people who survive the shooting, including the congresswoman many went to sea on saturday. i have just come from the university medical center just a mile fromere, where our friends gabby courageously fights to recover even as we speak. i want to tell you, her husband mark is here and he allowed me to share this with you. right after we went to visit, a few minutes after we let the

room and some of her colleagues from congress were in their room, gabby opened her eyes for the first time. [cheers and applause] bby opened her eyes. gabby open your eyes alighted can tell you she knows that we are hurt, and she knows that we are rooting for her for what will undoubtably be of rough road ahead.

[applause] our hearts are full of thanks for that could nays -- good news and full of gratitude for those who saved others. we're thankful to daniel hernandez. a volunteer in gabby's office. daniel, you may deny it but we have decided you are a hero. you ran through the chaos to minister to your boss to help tend her once and help keep her alive. [cheers and applause]

we are grateful to the men who tackled the gunman as he stopped to reload. [cheers and applause] they are right over there. [applause] [applause] we are grateful for petit

patricia msch who wrestled away that killers ammunition and undoubtedly saved some lives. [cheers and applause] >> and we are grateful for the doctors and nurses. and the first responders to worked wonders to deal -- heal those that had been heard. -- hurt.

we are grateful to them. [applause] these men and women remind us that her wisdom -- heroism i not only found on the fields of battle. heroism does not require special training or physicaltrength. heroism is here. in the hearts of so many of our fellow citizens just waiting to be summoned. as it was on saturday morning.

their actions, their selflessness poses a challenge to each of us. it raises the question of what, beyond prayers and expressions of concern, is required of us going forward. how can we honor the fallen? how can we be true to their memory? you see, when a tragedy like this strikes, it is part of our nature to demand explanations. to try to have some order on the chaos to make sense out of that which seems senseless.

already, we have seen the national conversation commenced. not only about the motivations hind these killings, but about everything from the merits of gun safety laws to the adequacy of our mental health system. 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 lf-government. at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time where we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we u-haul --

than we do, it is important to pause for a moment and make sure we are talking with each other in aay that heels. -- heals. not in a way that wounds. [applause] script tells us that there is evil in the world. and that terrible things happen for rsons that defy human understanding. inhe words of job, when i looked for life, then came darkness. bad things happen. we have to guard against simple

explanations in the aftermath. but the truth is, none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. the of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped these shots from being fired. or what ought to work in the inner recesses of a violent man's mind. we have to examine all of the facts behind this tragedy. we cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. we should b willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospect of such violence in the future. [applause] but what we cannot do is use

this tragedy has one more occasion to turn on each otr. [applause] that, we cannot do. [applause] that, we cannot do. as we discussed these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, which use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations. to listen to each other more carefully. to sharpen our instincts for at the feet. and remind ourselves of all the

ways that our hopes a dreams are bound together. after all, tt is what most of us do when we lose somebody in our family. especially if a loss is unexpected. we are shaken out of our routines. we are forced to look inward. we reflect on the past and we spend enough time with an agent. did we express our gratitude from the sacrifices that they made for us. did we tell a spouse just how desperately we love them? not just once in awhile, but every single day?

so some loss causes us to look backward, but it also forces us to look forward. to reflect on the present and the future. on the manner in which we live our lives. and nurture our relationships with those that are still with us. [appuse] we might ask ourselves if we have shown enough kindness and generosity. had compassion. -- and compassion to the people in our lives. we might question if our priorities are in order.

we recognize our own mortality and we are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth or status or power or fame, but how well we have loved. and what small part we have played in making the lives of other people better. [applause] and that process of reflection of making sure we align our values with ou actions, that is what i believe a tragedy like this requires. for those who were harmed or

killed, they ar part of our family. the american family, 300 million strong. [applause] we may not have known them personally, but surely we see ourselves and them. . dot, -- to george, dot, others. we sense them in our life partners. phyllis is our mom or grandma. gabe, our brother or son. and judge roll, we recognize a man that not only applies to family and doing his job well,

but a man that embodied america's fidelity to the law. in gabi, we see a reflection of the public spiritedness that desire to participate in the sometimes frustrating and sometimes contentious but always necessary and never-ending process to form a more perfect union. [applause] and in cristina. we see all of our children so curious, so trusting, so energetic. so full of magic.

so deserving of our loved. and so deserving of our good example. this trady, some reflection and debate as it shoul, let's make sure it is worthy. of those we have lost. [applause] let's make sure is not on the usual plain of polits and point scoring and pettiness that drift away and the next news cycle. the loss of these wonderful people should make everyone of us strive to be better, to be better in our private lives, could be better friends and neighbors, co-workers, parents.

and as it has been discussed in recent days, and their death helped usher in more civility in public discourse. remember that is not because a simple act of civility caused this tragedy. but rather, because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation in a way that would make them proud. [applause]

we should be civil because we want to live up to the example of public servants like those that knew first and foremost that we are all americans, we can question each other's ideas without questioning each other'' love of country, and that working together, we constantly widen the circle of our concern. so that we bequeath the american dream to future generations. [applause] they believed and i believe that we can be better. those that died here, they held me believe.

lehman not be able to stop all evil in the world. but i know that how we tre one another is entirely up to us. and i believe that for all of our imperfections, we are people of decency and good as. the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us. [applause] that is what i believe. in part because that is what a child believes. imagine for a moment, here was a youn girl who was just becoming

aware of our democracy. just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship. just starting to let the fact that some day, she might play a part in shaping her nation's future. she had been elected to student council. she sought public service as something exciting and helpful. she was often the term congresswoman. someone she was sure was good and important. and might be a role model. she saw all of this through the eyes of a child. undimmed by the cynicism and vitriol that we take for granted as adults. i want to live up to her expectations.

i want our democracy to be as good as she imaned it. i want america to be as good as she imagined it. all of us, we should do everything we can do to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations. [applause]

it has already been mentiod, christina was given to us on the timber 11, 2001. there were 50 babies born that day pictured in a book called "faces a vote -- of hope." on the other side of her photo were simple wishes. i hope you help those in thneed. i hope you know all the words to the national ahem and sing it with your hand over your heart. [applause] i hope that you jump in rain puddles.

if there are rain puddles in heaven, cristina is jumping in them today. [applause] and here, on this earth, a year on this earth we place our hands over our hearts and we commit ourselves as americans to forging a country that is forever were t for gentle, happy spirits. god bless and keep those we have lost. th love and watch over the survivors and may he bless the united states of america. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you, president obama for your remarkable and inspiring words. [applause] i also thank all of the speakers

here tonight as well as all of the federal, state, and local leaders that have come tonight to lend their support. we have heard many inspirational thoughts from our distinguished guests. this time, i invite everyone here and those watching around the natio to join together in a moment of silence that will be followed by the musical selections. join me, please, in a moment of silence.

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>> i now conclude the program tonight by reading a poem that was written by the current poet loriat of the united states of america. he has a long history with the poetry center here at the university of arizona. the pollen is titled, who the new year. with what stillness at last you appear in the valley your first sunlight reaching down to touch of the tips of the few high leaves that do not stir as though they had not noticed and did not know you at all

then, the voice of the above calls from the far away in itself to hush of morning so this is the sound of you here and now, whether or not anyone here is -- hears it this is where we he come with our age. our knowledge, ch as it is and our hopes, such as they are invisible before us untouched and still possible. [applause]

thank you for coming, and goodnight to everyone. [applause] ♪ [choir singing]

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["imagine"]

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[cheers] >> the cspan networks provide coverage of politics, public affairs, books, and american

history, available to you and find our content through eric cspan video library. we also take cspan on the road. we bring our resources to your community. it is washington your way. the cspan networks now available in more than 1 million homes, created by cable and provided as a public service. >> and up next, "washington journal"is live with your phone calls. then a discussion about the bp gulf oil spill at the center for strategic and international studies and later, live coverage of the former minnesota governor tim pawlenty at the national press club. in about 45 minutes, a look at state and federal gun laws with the president of the brady campaign and john lott, author campaign and john lott, author