(Transcript Below)
Our hearts are heavy today with the violence ravaging our country.
Today we honor the innocent lives lost on this day 24 years ago.
Today we honor the innocent children slain at the hands of monsters.
Today we honor the innocent lives of those murdered because of their skin color.
Today we honor those taken by tragic, random acts of violence.
Today we honor people across the political spectrum—liberal and conservative, progressive and traditional, Republicans and Democrats—who have risked, and some have lost, everything for speaking out from conviction and principle.
We don’t agree with all of them. Our team spans a diverse range of views, but we are all human.
We do not presume, nor do we have any right to act alone as judge, jury, or executioner. One of the most fundamental attributes of being American is the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
When we speak of “innocent victims,” we remind ourselves of this principle:
These innocent victims did not pose an imminent threat to any person’s life.
These innocent victims were not enemies of the state.
These innocent victims did not threaten the sovereignty of our nation.
In times of comfort and stability, it is easy to forget the humanity of others and to justify barbaric behavior under banners like democracy, patriotism, or inclusion. It is easy to strip humanity from people whose words we dislike—no matter how abrasive—and to conflate their beliefs with a true threat to our safety and our nation, unlike the attacks in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania that we solemnly remember today.
This day serves as a sobering reminder that the blood of innocent lives still stains our streets. It forces us to ask: Is the greatest threat to our safety and prosperity coming from within—from our bickering, our lack of empathy, our refusal to see the intrinsic value of life in one another? Does democracy not begin with open discourse and dialogue? How can we sustain a democracy without free speech?
To celebrate the loss of innocent life–especially in response to speech–is to reject the principles articulated in our nation’s founding—the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is profoundly anti-American.
We need to pause today, America. Every person across the political spectrum has cause to grieve: to grieve the coarsening of our speech, the devaluing of human life, and the countless innocent lives senselessly taken on a daily basis. May we honor those lives by refusing to dehumanize any people or group, and rejecting violence in word and deed.
Let us remember that the freedoms of speech and religion were the very values our attackers sought to destroy on this day 24 years ago, and they come at a cost: for many, the discomfort of hearing what we despise. For some, tragically, the ultimate cost at the hands of those who reject these freedoms.
Whatever cost we bear, let us not hand victory to those who would destroy our democracy by abandoning these freedoms and answering words with violence. We must not hand them that victory.