[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 659-660]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             TUCSON TRAGEDY

  Mr. KYL. Madam President, I would like to call timeout from this 
partisan discussion to speak for a moment about the events in Tucson of 
January 8. It is the first opportunity I have had to address my 
colleagues about the tragedy of that day. The theme I would like to 
discuss is the goodness of people because if I have gotten any lesson 
from this, after meeting and talking with all of the people whom I 
could who were involved in this tragedy, the overwhelming notion of the 
goodness of people is what I am most left with.
  Tomorrow, Senator McCain and I will offer a resolution in support of 
the victims of the shooting, offering condolences to those who were 
lost and their loved ones and our prayers for the recovery of those who 
were injured and expressing appreciation to those who engaged in real 
acts of heroism. We will have time more formally to talk about it when 
we do that tomorrow, but I wanted to share some thoughts from my heart 
based on my interaction with the people over the last 2 weeks after 
this event occurred.
  It begins with the proposition that Tucson likes to call itself a 
town, not a city. It is over half a million people. But you are all 
familiar with communities which, though large in numbers, seem small 
because people work together, they play together, and they have a sense 
of community and of helping and working with each other. That is 
Tucson, where my wife and I both attended the University of Arizona. 
The Safeway where this event occurred is only two blocks from my Tucson 
office, and the head of my Tucson office and his staff were at the 
Safeway that Saturday morning shopping, and they left about 7 or 8 
minutes before this occurred.
  Judge John Roll, who was a very close friend and attended Mass 
virtually every morning, had just come from Mass and had decided to 
come to the Safeway to express his appreciation to Representative 
Gabrielle Giffords. They were friends. Among other things, he wanted to 
tell her he appreciated her signing a letter, along with Representative 
Grijalva, that supported the Arizona Federal District Court in its 
desire to be named an emergency district by the commission that does 
that for the Federal courts because of the overwhelming caseload in 
that court.
  Judge Roll, though he had significant administrative 
responsibilities, kept a full caseload himself because to do otherwise 
would have been to put part of the burden onto his colleagues. So he 
was really carrying two separate loads, administering a very busy 
court, and at the same time acting as a judge on all of his cases.
  One of the things he and I had been working on--in fact, Senator 
Barrasso, Senator LeMieux, and I had lunch with Judge Roll the Friday 
after the election to talk about how we could strengthen the courts, 
especially because of the crushing caseload from drug and immigration 
cases because that is the district that is right down on the border. 
Part of his work, which I was working with him on, was to try to find 
ways to ameliorate the load of this court and potentially get some 
additional magistrates, if not judges, to help handle the caseload.
  When Representative Giffords decided to hold this ``Congress on Your 
Corner'' event, many of the people on her Tucson staff went with her to 
the event. They are very devoted to her. I do not know anyone who 
enjoys meeting with constituents more than Representative Giffords. So 
she had several staff people there too. When the gunman came, he 
immediately headed for her. His intention was obviously to do her harm, 
but right after shooting Representative Giffords, he began to shoot the 
people on her staff and the others waiting in line to talk to her.
  This is where some of the goodness of the people comes out. I mean, I 
talked about the goodness of the people. Judge Roll did not have to say 
``thank you'' to Representative Giffords, but he went out of his way to 
try to do that. When Ron Barber, the head of Representative Giffords' 
Tucson staff, was shot, Judge Roll, the cameras show, pushed him down 
under a table and put his body over Ron Barber's body and thus took the 
bullet that

[[Page 660]]

killed John Roll. Talk about the goodness of people.
  At his funeral, everyone in Tucson and in Arizona who knew Judge Roll 
spoke not just of his abilities as a jurist and his public service but 
his goodness, his love for his wife Maureen, their three sons, their 
grandchildren. Incidentally, three of his grandchildren spoke. It was 
so moving when they talked about the love they had for their 
grandfather, who took a lot of time with each of them to teach them how 
to swim, to play basketball, and so on. The goodness of people.
  Representative Giffords' staff was there. They liked her and were 
very willing to be with her on a Saturday morning when they could have 
been doing something else with their families.
  Gabe Zimmerman, just 30 years old, was one of those staff people, and 
he, too, lost his life. My staff in Tucson really enjoyed working with 
Gabe. Now, I am a Republican, they are Republicans, and Gabe is a 
Democrat working for a Democratic Representative. That did not matter 
to them. They really enjoyed working together for the same 
constituents. And I will tell you, my Tucson staff has taken his loss 
very hard.
  There were others from his staff who were there, one of whom is an 
intern we are going to see this evening. He is going to be sitting in 
the President's box. His name is Daniel Hernandez. We saw him at the 
ceremony in Tucson at the University of Arizona on Wednesday after the 
shooting. He was one of the people who immediately went to 
Representative Giffords' aid and continued to staunch her bleeding. The 
goodness of people--his unselfish act to help her.
  Pam Simon was another one of her staffers who were shot. I had a 
chance to visit with Pam in the hospital and then after. There she is 
with wounds. A bullet went in and out of her arm and another in her 
leg. She could not wait to get back to work, and she has done so now.
  The other people who were shot there--Christina Taylor Green was the 
9-year-old. The things that were said about her remind me so much of my 
granddaughter, my youngest granddaughter. The hugest heart you can ever 
imagine, athletic and yet studious, interested in government--all the 
things you would want in a young woman. President Obama spoke 
eloquently about her in his remarks on that Wednesday. She was taken to 
the event with a friend who just wanted to expose her to Representative 
Giffords and a little bit about our government.
  Dorothy Morris. Now, I did not know Dorothy, but I knew her husband 
George. They had communicated with me, and I visited with George a 
couple of times after this event. He is a retired marine. I will tell 
you, he is having a hard time with this because he said that Dot, his 
wife, would follow him--in his words, ``She would follow me to hell.'' 
Well, she is obviously in a different place, and he is going to be as 
well. But the fact is, she did not particularly want to go that 
morning, but he is a Republican, he wanted to go talk to Representative 
Giffords because he thought he could talk to her just in the way that 
we do about issues and have a good conversation with somebody he did 
not totally agree with.
  Dorwan and Mavy Stoddard. Dorwan was killed. His whole recent life 
was devoted to service at his church. I visited with Mavy at her home. 
Her two daughters were there and a very good friend of ours, Ed 
Biggers, from Tucson, who also attends their church. The kindness of 
all of those people and the way they talked about the others involved, 
as well as, as you can see, the members of family and friends helping 
each other, was, as I said, an impression that will stick with me 
forever.
  Phyllis Schneck, who everyone agreed was a wonderful grandmother, 
spent her winters in Tucson--she lived in New Jersey.
  All of these folks were human beings with friends, with family, with 
futures, and to have all of them taken from us is a real tragedy.
  What can we take from that? At this time, I think I have gone almost 
10 minutes. Tomorrow, I will mention some of the other heroes. I will 
take a second with some of them, though.
  Bill Badger, a retired Army colonel, did not want to talk about his 
heroism, but he helped to subdue the assailant.
  Anna Ballis, who has two sons, both of whom are U.S. marines who have 
done repeated tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, was in the Safeway, came 
out, and immediately began administering to Ron Barber. I went to visit 
Ron in the hospital at the same time Anna had gotten there, a few 
minutes before, and Ron was holding her hand the entire time, saying: 
This is the lady who saved my life. Just a tremendous act of selfless 
courage on her part and showing again the wonderful humanity of all of 
the people there.
  Steve Rayle, a doctor, a former emergency room doc, was there and 
helped to subdue the assailant and so on.
  There are many others. We will talk about some of the others tomorrow 
when we express more formally our views on this resolution. I know all 
of our colleagues will want to join us in supporting this resolution to 
let the folks of Tucson know we appreciate what they have endured here, 
we appreciate the heroism. Our prayers are with the victims, and our 
hearts go out to all of those who were injured in some way or other.
  From this, among the lessons we learned is that people have innate 
goodness. We all have a side of us that we wish we did not have 
sometimes too frequently expressed on the floor of this body. But maybe 
for a little while, we can acknowledge the fact that there is goodness 
in everyone, and I saw so much of that in all of these people drawn 
from all over the community, different walks of life, different 
political parties, different ages. Yet when they came together, what 
was most obvious? It was their sacrifice and their goodness. I think 
that is something that should be a lesson to all of us.
  Tomorrow, I will speak more formally, as I said, about this 
resolution. But I am deeply grateful for the expressions of condolence 
and support all of my colleagues have presented to me and to Senator 
McCain.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I certainly grieve and also appreciate 
all the remarks of the distinguished Senator from Arizona. What a 
tragedy. But there are heroes there as well. I thank the Senator for 
his comments.

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