Congressman Gregory W. Meeks Floor StatementResolution Honoring Congresswoman Giffords and Victims of the Tragic Shooting in Arizona

(WASHINGTON, DC)– Mister Speaker, I rise in support of the Resolution Honoring Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the victims of this weekend’s horrific shooting.

I have had the opportunity to serve with Congresswoman Giffords on the Foreign Affairs Committee. In our time serving together I have witnessed a courageous, hardworking, admirable public servant who is dedicated to her constituents and to this nation.

Most importantly, Gabby is highly regarded and a family person. Not more than a few months ago my wife was talking to Gabby’s cousin, Elisa Giffords, about how proud she and her family are of Congresswoman Giffords and about how they all know how important she is to her constituents. She is loved and looked up to by those that know her best, her family.

Gabby Giffords has developed a reputation as an astute public servant. The community meeting she organized, ‘Congress in your corner’ represented the best of us. Americans with a variety of views gathered peaceably to discuss how they can work together to improve their community. Tragically, a mother of two and wife of fifty years, Dorothy Morris, Judge John M. Roll a devoted husband, father and grandfather; Church volunteers Phyllis Schneck and Dorwan Stoddard; Gabriel Matthew Zimmerman, a 30 year old Congressional staffer engaged to be married, and Christina Taylor Green, a third grader there to meet a role model-Congresswoman Giffords, were all senselessly taken from us.

While shocking, this horrific event cannot be allowed to detract from our obligations to our constituents or the need to peaceably assemble, a right Gabby so eloquently conveyed to us earlier this month on the House floor.

With courage, confidence, and the same grace Congresswoman Giffords has displayed, we must work with and for each other in these hard times and in the months and years ahead. In this time of great sadness for all of the victims I offer my deepest and most heartfelt prayers and well wishes. God bless you and God bless America.

Thank you Mister Speaker.