Barack Obama Tucson memorial speech

President of the United States Barack Obama delivered a speech at the Together We Thrive: Tucson and America memorial on January 12, 2011, held in the McKale Center on the University of Arizona campus.

It honored the victims of the 2011 Tucson shooting and included themes of healing and national unity. Watched by more than 30 million Americans, it drew widespread praise from politicians and commentators across the political spectrum and from abroad.

Obama began writing his speech the day of the shooting, discussing the matter with young Pentecostal clergyman, Joshua DuBois, head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. That day and the next, he spoke with relatives of the victims of the shooting, including Mark E. Kelly the astronaut who is Gabrielle Giffords' husband.

The formal speechwriting process began on January 10, with staff speechwriter Cody Keenan. Previously a staffer for Senator Edward Kennedy, Keenan helped write the remarks Obama delivered after Kennedy's death. Keenan is a Chicago native, and was then a recent graduate of Harvard University with a master's degree in public policy.

White House staffers found a copy of Faces of Hope, a book picturing 50 babies born on September 11, 2001. One was Christina-Taylor Green, the girl killed in the shooting. That book contained a quote from the book's author that Obama incorporated into his speech: "I hope you jump in rain puddles."

White House staffers exchanged email with religious advisors about biblical passages, settling on the Book of Job and Psalms 46. Obama decided to quote the lesser-known, middle part of the psalm, feeling it better fit his theme as opposed to more frequently quoted verses.

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