VIA CNN.COM
In between consoling those touched by Saturday’s Arizona shooting and warning the nation against politicizing the tragedy, President Barack Obama delivered some good news in his address at a Tucson memorial event on Wednesday.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona has opened her eyes for the first time since being shot four days ago.
“There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts,” Obama said. “But know this: The hopes of a nation are here tonight.”
The attack killed six and left Giffords fighting for her life.
Obama told a crowd of thousands that he visited Giffords earlier on Wednesday and that her husband told him that shortly after the president left her room, “Gabby opened her eyes for the first time.”
“Gabby opened her eyes so I can tell you know she knows we are here, she knows that we love her and she knows that we are rooting for her through what will undoubtedly be a difficult journey,” Obama said.
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Obama called Hernandez a hero in his speech Wednesday, though Hernandez rejected that description in an earlier speech at the memorial event.
The president spoke at the University of Arizona’s McKale Memorial Center, which the school said held just under 14,000 people on Wednesday night, with an overflow crowd of 13,000 outside.
Obama spoke about Giffords and briefly eulogized each of those killed in the attack before moving on to warn Americans against assigning blame for the attacks to those other than the gunman.
“At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized — at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do — it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds,” Obama said.
“Scripture tells us that there is evil in the world, and that terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding,” he said. ” … Bad things happen, and we must guard against simple explanations in the aftermath.
