Gabby_ A Story of Courage and Hope - Alison Hanson [96]
Each day in Gabby’s district, an average of 660 illegal immigrants are apprehended trying to cross the border. That’s 240,000 a year. No one knows exactly how many thousands make it through undetected. Gabby was also troubled by the hundreds of thousands of pounds of drugs confiscated at the border of her district each year. How many pounds got through? “This is an emergency,” she’d say.
And so when the president came to visit, I waited for my moment to issue an invitation on Gabby’s behalf. He and Mrs. Obama were extremely genuine in the few minutes they spent at Gabby’s bedside. She was comatose, but they each had a moment when they took her hand and spoke to her. The president told her that many Americans were wishing her well. He also embraced each of us in the room.
Just as they were getting ready to leave, with Gabby silent in her bed, I said, “Mr. President, Gabby really loves Arizona, and as you know, this community has a crisis on its border.”
He was giving me his full attention. I continued. “We’ve been trying to think what Gabby would want us to say to you today. We think she’d ask you to come back sometime and visit the border, to see for yourself the problems down there.
“So I’m asking you, Mr. President, after Gabby recovers, would you come back to Arizona and let her take you to the border of her district? She’d be so grateful if you’d get a firsthand look at the crisis on the border.”
“Absolutely,” the president said. “When she’s ready, let me know and I’ll come back.”
(On behalf of Gabby and the people of her district, I hope to hold him to that promise. He and Gabby can ride Warner Glenn’s mules out to one of the harshest areas of the United States–Mexico border, and Gabby can show him the problems in her district up close. The Secret Service can follow on their own mules. The president will certainly see the border issues from a new vantage point.)
After visiting Gabby, the president invited me and Gloria to join him and Mrs. Obama for the limo ride over to the University of Arizona’s McKale Memorial Center. More than 26,000 people were waiting there, crowded into the main arena and an overflow area.
There were just the four of us in the back of the limo, and though we were all aware of the tragedy that had brought us together, we tried to remain upbeat. Gloria joked about the presidential seal on the two packages of M&M’s on the armrest. She asked if the seal meant the candy was for the president only. “No, they’re for you,” Mrs. Obama said.
When we arrived at the arena, Gabby’s staffers and the families of the other victims were waiting for us in private areas, and the president and Mrs. Obama seemed to have a real sense of the pain everyone was feeling. They hugged and kissed them all, one after another. Gloria happened to be standing near the end of the line, and when the president reached her, she said to him, “I already got mine.”
The president kissed her anyway. “There are always more hugs and kisses to give out,” he told her.
Many people say that the nationally televised speech President Obama gave that day was the highlight of his presidency. He wrote it mostly himself the evening before, and delivered it with his heart. It’s often said that people need to turn to their leaders in times of national tragedy, so that’s when a president’s words have the most power. I thought President Obama’s speech rivaled the soaring remarks President Reagan gave after the Challenger tragedy in 1986, and the 1995 speech delivered by President Clinton in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing.
“There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts,” President Obama said to the audience in Tucson. “But know this: The hopes of a nation are here tonight.”
He talked about each person murdered, sharing glimpses of their lives. And when he spoke of Gabby, he announced the news we’d told him minutes before, that she had opened