Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:56 pm
An emotional President Obama fought back tears as talked about the 18 children who were killed today in the Newtown, CT school shooting. The president called on the country to come together to end this violence.
Here is the video:
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President Obama said in part, “We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. Each time I learn the news I react not as a president but as anybody else would as a parent. That was especially true today. I know there’s not a parent in America that doesn’t feel the same overwhelming grief that I do. The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10. They had their entire lives ahead of them, birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams. Our hearts are broken today for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these children and the families of the adults we lost.”
Later the president said, “We’re going to have to come together to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.”
At one point while talking about the children who were murdered today, the president wiped a tear out of his eye, and appeared to pause to compose himself before continuing with his remarks.
We need to put politics aside and not get mired in the gun debate, at least for today. A gun is an inanimate object. It was the desire and thought processes of Adam Lanza that turned it into a murderous weapon. If guns were illegal, he would have found himself another weapon. I believe that as a country we need to look beyond the black hole argument of gun control and ask ourselves some hard questions about our culture and violence.
The problem is that violence is being seen as an acceptable option by some in our culture.
The president suggested that we need to come together to prevent more tragedies like this. This isn’t about guns, or politics. To me, it is about our culture. There will always be murderers, and some can’t be stopped, but as a country we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves how we got to this point.
It is comforting to think that this can ever be prevented from happening again if we just pass or change the law, but what if the problem goes much deeper than the gun?
In the coming days, that is a question that shouldn’t be ignored.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
