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Weekly Address: President Obama – Marking One-Year Anniversary of the Tragic Shooting in Newtown

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From the White House – Weekly Address

In his weekly address, President Obama honors the memory of the 26 innocent children and educators who were taken from us a year ago in Newton, Connecticut.

Transcript: Marking the One-Year Anniversary of the Tragic Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut

One year ago today, a quiet, peaceful town was shattered by unspeakable violence.

Six dedicated school workers and 20 beautiful children were taken from our lives forever.

As parents, as Americans, the news filled us with grief.  Newtown is a town like so many of our hometowns.  The victims were educators and kids that could have been any of our own.  And our hearts were broken for the families that lost a piece of their heart; for the communities changed forever; for the survivors, so young, whose innocence was torn away far too soon.

But beneath the sadness, we also felt a sense of resolve – that these tragedies must end, and that to end them, we must change.

From the very beginning, our efforts were led by the parents of Newtown – men and women, impossibly brave, who stepped forward in the hopes that they might spare others their heartbreak.  And they were joined by millions of Americans – mothers and fathers; sisters and brothers – who refused to accept these acts of violence as somehow inevitable.

Over the past year, their voices have sustained us.  And their example has inspired us – to be better parents and better neighbors; to give our children everything they need to face the world without fear; to meet our responsibilities not just to our own families, but to our communities.  More than the tragedy itself, that’s how Newtown will be remembered.

And on this anniversary of a day we will never forget, that’s the example we should continue to follow.  Because we haven’t yet done enough to make our communities and our country safer. We have to do more to keep dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily.  We have to do more to heal troubled minds.  We have to do everything we can to protect our children from harm and make them feel loved, and valued, and cared for.

And as we do, we can’t lose sight of the fact that real change won’t come from Washington.  It will come the way it’s always come – from you.  From the American people.

As a nation, we can’t stop every act of violence.  We can’t heal every troubled mind.  But if we want to live in a country where we can go to work, send our kids to school, and walk our streets free from fear, we have to keep trying.  We have to keep caring.  We have to treat every child like they’re our child.  Like those in Sandy Hook, we must choose love.  And together, we must make a change.  Thank you.

Any bolding added.

~

Editor’s Note: The President’s Weekly Address diary is also the weekend open news thread. Feel free to leave links to other news items in the comment threads.


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/ 22 Comments

22 comments

  2. JanF

    Conversation On Gun Control ‘Is Not Over’

    “Last December I promised the families a meaningful conversation about how to change America’s culture of violence,” Reid said in a floor speech, according to The Hill. “I want everyone within the sound of my voice to know that the conversation is not over.”

    Reid did not specify when his chamber might try and take up passing new gun laws again, but he did say that a majority of Americans support additional gun restrictions for people with mental illnesses or a history of crime.

  3. JanF

    A year after Newtown, America’s gun carnage continues with no end in sight

    One year ago this week, a seemingly unimaginable event took place in Newtown, Connecticut. Adam Lanza, a disturbed and isolated young man took guns that were legally purchased and kept in his home and drove to the Sandy Hook elementary school. He shot his way inside with an AR-15 assault rifle and proceeded to kill 26 people – 20 of them young children.

    It was a crime that, perhaps more than any other in recent memory, spoke to America’s deadly and debilitating fascination with guns. Here was the sickness of this nation’s gun culture on vivid display.

    But a year later what is even more unimaginable, more difficult to comprehend and more shocking than this horrible act of violence – is that the carnage continues with seemingly no end in sight.

    The CDC estimates that 33,373 persons have died from guns in the United States since 12/14/2012.

  4. DTOzone

    where I’m saying just arm the teachers and hope that when I have children, their mother agrees with me to raise them in Canada or another country where they’re safer.

    The only way to change America is the convince enough of its population that the status quo shames us as a nation and needs to change.

    We don’t seem to be ashamed of the NRA, of the suggestion that we need to arm teachers, at the suggestion that there is nothing we can do to keep our children from going to school without the possibility of it turning into the OK Corral.

    Enough Americans think there is no way we can be like every other nation in the western world and make gun violence rare.

    If Americans want to live like uncivilized people, then let’s live like uncivilized people and let’s talk about how we’re the only country in the western world who needs to arm its teachers and live this way.

    If Americans are still proud of their country after that, then it’s just plain hopeless.

  5. princesspat

    One Year After Newtown: We Cannot Give Up    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-ma…

    Some policy change is happening across the country, and more importantly a cultural change is slowly developing.

    Thanks for posting the President’s Address every weekend Jan.

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