[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] good morning. Buenos dias. Isnt it beautiful to your the El Paso High School band back to sing behind us . We may hear the strength of the next song coming through over the course of this conversation, but i was just thinking about the fact that charlotte and i, raised by melissa and pat along with her sister, who up about four blocks from here. When i would walk to el paso high, i would walk through this part, climb over this wall and to make my way down the side of this mountain and sea chris and jim and robert and our friends at el paso high. It is definitely a a part of te white m, help to for me and shake me part of who i am. Youre just looking at everyone whos taken the time to be here this morning. I just want to begin with my gratitude and my thanks and an expression of my overwhelming pride in this community at this moment. After this horrific tragedy on august 3 where 22 lies were taken from us, thousands more injured and still grieving, many still at University Medical center, not yet through the words but being told through by their families and their friends and this community. The way that we have met this tragedy, though we were targeted because we are a community of immigrants, because we are a community that is 85 mexican american, though they tried to defined by our differences, we showed just how strong we are and i hope gave an example to the rest of the country about who we can become as america. Last week we went over to the memorial that is just outside of the walmart, and we were paying respects along with hundreds of el paso wins. There was a band playing. There was dancing, preachers praying. There were families adjust in silence and through tears were trying to take and what it just happened to this community and to this country, and to all of us. And i remember that a chaplain found me and brought me over. He said the i would like you to meet. Picky introduced me to a gentleman named antonio who was kneeling in front of a cross and on that white cross in black paint it said margie. The chaplain told me hes been every single night since that terrorist act. In front of that cross the represents his wife, the woman he loved, that woman with whom he built a life, that women who means everything to him. He doesnt have other family in this community, doesnt have a lot of friends right now to grieve with. But it want you to go meet him and of what youd ask him about his story. And they did. I went up to antonio, and told me about margie, just the most beautiful smile broke through on his face. And i thought of the grace he was shown to me and to others who were there to mourn with him. You could forgive him if he was consumed by its grief and did want to talk to or listen to or be with any of us. But that wasnt the way he responded. And then the chaplain, i didnt how this would work out, he said antonio, standup. Tell by hundreds of people here about your wife margie, and shiloh come in a voice you could almost hear at first, he did that. He began to tell his wifes story. The chaplain said anybody come around. This guy needs a hug right now. One after another, tens, dozens, hundreds of el pasoans surrounded him and hug him and put their hands on him he was crying and it was so powerful and cathartic for him, for us, for this community and for anyone in this nation who was taking the time to watch what was happening. Thats just one of many stories that we have learned and we have witnessed over the last two weeks. Flying home from las vegas, nevada, when i got the news young gentleman named chris walks up to me and he says im flying back to el paso so because i just learned that my mother, rosemary, has been shot at that walmart. I have no idea how shes doing, what her condition is nothing, no news. I said if it is any help, i, my wife amy, would love to join you. He said that would be great. I could use the help right now. We went over to unc. When you walk into that room, chris, and your mother rosemary would been shot in the chest, both of her lungs perforated, tubes coming out of her chest snaking through the hospital sheet coming down onto the floor, a mask over her face, the biggest smile ive ever seen produced by another human being, to see you in that room. And for your sisters to be there as well. And the strength and grace to greet me, a complete stranger in her life and to make sure that i felt welcomed in her intensive care unit hospital room. To meet the nurses and the doctors and the front line staff never going to make sure that she was going to make it, and i wondered to myself, where in the world does she get the strength and that courage . The next day i found the answer. It was her mother who was in her early 80s was also shot in the stomach, and though she was shot, in aftermath of that shooting she tended the other victims in the parking lot and inside of the store before she ever thought about the womens that she was walking with womens the forced her to have to sit down and laid out to be taken into a hospital where again our life was saved by extraordinary el pasoans from this community. What a faux wenches she was on her way into her shift, a dock in this Community Stopped me and said hey, beto, i love the way this community is coming together right now and it is what you do know that im going into my shift right now. Im a doctor. Im going to keep saving these lives but also want you to know that im an immigrant. Im not unlike so many people in this community, so many millions in america who by their very presence and their sacrifice and their service make this country great. This is a beautiful community, one of if not the safest cities in the United States of america. Say, not despite the fact that we are a city of immigrants, more than a quarter who live here came here, shows us, left their hometown, their family, their culture, their language far too often, to start here as strangers in a strange land to do better for themselves and for their kids, and also to do better us. And they have. In this connection that we have with Ciudad Juarez is one of the most beautiful you will find between two cities from two countries anywhere in the world. 3 million, two histories, two nationalities joined, not separated by the Rio Grande River forming something far greater and more powerful than the sum of their parts or the number of people involved. We went to one of the funerals in Ciudad Juarez. Ate mexican nationals killed on that day here in our community. And again, the grace of those survivors and families showed in the face such adversity and pain and suffering that i can only imagine. It made as sad as well, but also inspired us, that the strength and the courage that they showed. We owe this Community Time to heal. We owe one another our very best as those families make it through the toughest days theyve ever known, the toughest days weve ever known. But from what ive seen since august 3, this community, el paso and Ciudad Juarez, is more than up to the task. There is an embarrassment of riches, of kindness and compassion and help and service in el paso right now. You know that because you are part of that. What i think we also owe ourselves, this community, the families that have been affected, answers about why this happened here in el paso. Answers about what its going to take to ensure that this will not continue to happen in el paso or in communities like ours, or anywhere across the United States. I begin with the gun that was used in the act of terror, and the number of guns that we have in this country right now. You may have read the news that the killers mother, when she learned that he had ordered an ak47 and had received it, called the police in allen texas. What does my son, who is not enlisted in the military, who has no need for a weapon of war, no training in it, what does he indeed with this gun . She may not have known how to articulate the question, she was asking for help for herself, for her son, and really by extension for this country. I know from listening and from the doctors have treated his gunshot victims, some of them also served at William BeaumontArmy Medical Center have been trained in combat trauma care. The wound that they are seeing are like the ones that they saw in afghanistan and iraq. These weapons, like the ak47, were designed to kill people as effectively, as efficiently, d as great a number as possible. And thats exactly what they are doing. When you listen to the doctors described internal injuries of these survivors, it is absolutely horrifying. But to this point we have a congress to craven to act. A democracy not up to the task that favors those who can pay for access and influence and outcomes, the complicity and the silence of those who are in positions of public trust. And thats exactly what has happened here in this country. We have a racism in america that is as old as america itself. An intolerant of those who do not look like or pray like or love like or speak like the majority in this country. Thats part of our story and we absolutely need to tell it come to face it, to acknowledge it if we are ever going to change it. But weve always tried, until now, to change that. Until this president , who so openly speaks in racist terms, who so openly favors one race, one religion, one kind of people in this country over every other kind of people in this country. Proposing to ban all muslims, all people of one religion, one faith in the shores of the country that is comprised of people from the world over, every walk of life, from every tradition of faith, its hard to imagine that its happening in america, but it is happening in america. To tell people of color, born in this country, to go back to where they came from, to describe klansmen and neonazis and White Supremacists and White Nationalist terrorists as very fine people after they had marched and chanted jews, you will not replace us. Someone in his maiden speech of the highest office in the land, the greatest position of power and public trust, who described execute immigrants, though they commit crimes at a lower rate than those born in this country, as rapists and criminals, constantly warns through incessant repetition of invasions and infestations, and calls people, human beings, and lets be clear, the most desperate and foldable human beings fleeing the deadliest countries on the face of the planet, showing up here without a dime to the name, without any prospect of hope or advancement, except that they came here to this country of Asylum Seekers and refugees and immigrants, this country known as the statue of liberty, he calls them animals in predators and killers. And this may of this year in florida as he warns about this invasion and asks the question to the assembled masses, what are we going to do to stop these people . And someone yells out, shoot them. And the crowd roars their approval. In the face of that, the president signals his consent. He smiles, he laughs, he encourages more of it. Every single year for the last three, hate crimes have been on the rise in this country. Those counties that hosted a donald trump rally saw hate crimes increased by more than 200 . I want to make clear to you come to us, to the country, that what he says and what he does is not just open our sensibilities or our understanding of the traditions of this great country. It changes who we are as a country. You do not get kids in cages until giftgiving people permission to put them in cages by calling them animals. Seeking to dehumanize them. You dont lose the lives of seven children in the custody and care of the wealthiest, the most powerful country on the face of the planet unless you have made it possible. And you do not get somebody driving 600 miles to come to this community, and this manifesto repeating the very words used the president of United States to justify this act of terror and hatred and violence and death. And yet in the face of this, our institutions have failed us. And in this democracy not of us can take the comfort or feel in any way superior, because all of us are part of the institution. Whether it is our legislatures, our congress, the press come social media. They are all comprise of all of us. They have been impotent in the face of the greatest threat weve ever known, one that we experienced firsthand here in el paso a week ago saturday. Its almost as if the bigger the lie, the more obvious the injustice, the more furious the pace of this bizarre behavior, the more incapable we are of seeing it and clearly naming it and acting against it. This attack on el paso is an attack on america. It is an attack on our ideal of what america can be, an america that has not been for so many in this country based on their race, their ethnicity, their country of national origin, their gender, their sexual orientation. As Langston Hughes said in his poem about an america that was not an america for everyone, its the land that has never been yet, and yet must be. It is in this land, in this very community, after the election of this president , at lbj elementary, that a third student approached us and asked, why does the president not like me . Its in this country, its used in texas when i told that story that a family came to be and they sit it resonates with us because we have a third grader in our home. Shes not mexicanamerican. Shes muslim, and she wonders if theres some of the country we are supposed to go back to. She was born here. Shes a you a here. Shes just as american as anyone else. When we allow this country to be defined along the lines of the race, ethnicity and religion, we allow a commanderinchief who not only welcomes that the violence that follows, to defy our laws, our institutions and in ethical or moral boundaries, the end of that road is the end of this idea of america. The end of america where every single one of us could belong and have a future. Im confident that if at this moment we do not wake up to this threat, then we as a country will die in our sleep. The response to this has to be that each of us make a commitment to see clearly, to speak honestly, and to act decisively in this moment of truth. I for one see more clearly than ever, that in a country that has 320 million people, but 390 billion firearms, that we have too many guns, too many people who own them and use them and threaten us with them right now for the good of this country, for the good of the 40,000 of our fellow americans, our fellow human beings who will lose their lives to gun violence this year and every year going forward, until we change course. And i see more clearly than i ever have that not only do we need universal background checks, not only do we need red flag laws that would stop somebody when the pose a danger to themselves or someone else, not only do we need to end the sale of assault weapons and weapons of war that were designed for the battlefield and have no place in our communities, but we must as a country by those weapons, take them off the streets altogether. There are millions of them today, and their ability to inspire terror, to make our kids and your kids afraid to walk into the classroom at misdeed or el paso high pick because we were at a country weve accepted the murder six and seven year old children where they sat at school. Weve accepted High School Students being hunted down in the halls of the institutions like el paso high right behind me. It is time for us to be bold, to stand together, to stand up against this interest would prevent us from saving the lives of our fellow americans. It is more clear to me now than it is ever been before that when we do not make progress on the Human Dignity of our fellow americans, the ability to work a job and just one job, not two or three because you are paid a living wage, to be able to depend on healthcare is something that is right that you dont have to worry about so that youre well enough to link to your full potential, to know that your community, that you and your family counts, not only is it the right thing to do, to make sure that this country is realizing its full potential and promise for every single one of us, when we fail to do that, you provide Fertile Ground to the kinds of demagogues that we have in office right now who would use your fear and her frustration against you, against us, against one another. Demonize immigrants and minorities, blame them for the problems that you have. I see more clearly now that i ever have before, that immigrants in this community, in this state, in this country will continue to be attacked, not just killed as they were at the walmart, but terrorized as we just saw last week in mississippi 600 people who came to this country for the privilege of working the toughest, should his jobs and what else here would allow their children to work in chicken processing plants, picking cotton and working in the gym, working two or three shifts, may be making a minimum wage if they are lucky, far too often or immigration status use as leverage against them to pay them something far less, or nothing at all. This has in part caused this kind of treatment of the people who make america great, who are part of who we are, the very fabric of our lives, and the response to that is no more being defensive or being on the back foot or apologizing for who we are and who we want to be. It is using the example of el paso, texas, and showing that when we legalize those who are in this country, when we free dreamers from any fear of deportation by making them u. S. Citizens, when we elevate the asylumseekers, the refugee, that person who has no other hope or choice but to come here, not only is it good for them. It is great for the United States of america and fundamental to any success or strength or safety or security we could hope to have