Sam Stein
Political Reporter, The Huffington Post
Posted: January 12, 2011 11:27 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-stein/obama-reintroduces-the-hu_b_808366.htmlObama Re-Introduces the Human Element to the Giffords Tragedy
WASHINGTON -- It is when there is a
human element to his presidency that Barack Obama tends to stand the tallest. And on Wednesday evening, as he spoke to 20,000-plus at a memorial service at the University of Arizona, there was, if nothing else, an
emotional honesty to what he had to say.
To a nation looking for clarity, Obama didn't pretend to have all the answers. There is, he noted, a tendency to demand "order" from "chaos," to try and "make sense out of that which seems senseless." Life doesn't always comply.
To a political culture looking for scapegoats, he asked for maturity. A lack of civility hadn't caused the shooting of 20 in Tucson, nor would it provide relief. "What we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other," said Obama. "That we cannot do. That we cannot do."
And for a community mourning, the president assumed only the role of fellow griever, trying to draw threads of optimism from the wreckage. "If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate as it should, let's make sure it's worthy of those we have lost," Obama declared, in a speech that his own aides insisted was one of his best.