I must congratulate his speech writer. He called for more gun control on every level without asking for any gun control. He’s absolutely going in the wrong direction, but wasn’t that a great tap dance?
Another lost opportunity. What a damn shame.
I thought he was going to take it…he came close about 6 times, but didn’t..
I thought he nailed it. He didn’t go far enough to illicit the knee-jerk pro-gun response that would come undoubtedly if he’d explicitly called for a change in gun laws, but he planted a seed (also with a mention of mental illness, IMO the 2 big political issues that should be addressed). It’s a tough line to walk.
I’m as tired as many of the “don’t politicize the tragedy” thing (if not now, when?), but a memorial service really isn’t the place for a sweeping policy statement.
Several reporters/anchors claim he wrote it himself. It certainly sounded to me like his own words.
A great speech. I was rather surprised he “went there,” but I’m glad he did. Who gives a crap about “politicizing” when there are lives to be saved. It’s linked to the words of comfort, and the wonderful talks preceding by people of many faiths, by the desire among loved ones that at least something positive can come from this.
It was one of the President’s best speeches IMO and very moving even if I disagree with some of the implications.
I was shocked by his referenced Jesus Christ explicitly. In any circumstances, this would be insensitive, but how much does it take to know that this town has a significant Jewish population.
I’m assuming this is sarcasm?
Not sure if that’s a woosh or not, but I don’t think its insensitive to mention ones own faith in what’s essentially a memorial service, even if that faith isn’t shared by the people being memorialised. Obviously you don’t want to cross the line into evangelizing, but that wasn’t the case here.
I certainly found it preachy. I asked my husband a couple of times whether it was the president or a pastor up there on the stage. I get that it’s a memorial service. But I was ready for a “let us pray” to come out at any moment.
Thank God! I was afraid for a moment that gun nutters would start panicking about Obama taking away their guns. Then you’d see ammo prices shoot through the roof!
It crossed the line of Ceremonial Deism. Now, there isn’t a law against it, but I would expect the president to keep his personal faith out of this very public event. If I’m Jewish (or not Christian), and all of the sudden I hear:
"“Let the little children come to me,” Jesus said, “and do not hinder them – for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Charlotte. Daniel. Olivia. Josephine. Ana. Dylan. Madeleine. Catherine. Chase. Jesse. James. Grace. Emilie. Jack. Noah. Caroline. Jessica. Benjamin. Avielle. Allison.
God has called them all home."
as an obvious reference to my child, I would be taken aback.
My feeling is still that with a Republican house and the NRA nothing significant will come of this, but I’m almost curious enough to drive by my local gun store to see if there’s a line stretching outside the door.
… and you would be overreacting. Do you really think any of these grieving parents heard the President say that and immediately thought “hey, wait a minute … that’s church talk! Separation of church and state!”? I seriously doubt it. And I seriously doubt you would either if your child had just been gunned down at school.
No, I don’t think anyone thought that. But it would have jarred me out of the moment to hear the president project his personal, Christian faith on my dead non-Christian child and me.
This is a memorial service, and in this country, that means religion is going to be invoked. But it’s not hard to keep it generic, by using terms like “Our Creator” or even “God”. This isn’t about Obama and his religion, it’s about the people grieving, some of whom are not Christian.
A person says something nice about your child in attempt to provide some small bit of comfort in an incredibly trying time.
Your reaction: Can I have it said to me in my specific flavor of comfort please?
Come on? Really?
According to my gun nutter friend who was himself going to get a bunch of guns before “Obama takes them away”, yes, yes there were around here.
Actually, all of the significant policy responses that have been proposed involve constraints on freedom, from fewer rights of the mentally ill to infringement on First Amendment rights.
Conservatives seem to be fine with actual humans shooting AR-15s so long as no one does so in a video game. And liberals vice versa. (Painting with a broad brush, obviously.)
You see the speech as a call for gun control because of your political beliefs, not the content.
That’s not what I said.
It has the possibility of adding insult to injury-- it would be an emotional response, not an analytical one. So yes, really. How hard is it to keep things generic? Not very.