in as a symbol that we must challenge just policies of death. that my colleagues on the other side of the island promoting policies that make it easier to get a gun than it is to get health care in our state. and so it was. it was about lifting up the issue and dramatizing for the nation that this is an issue of life for definite and that if we leave session and do nothing that we have morally failed because children 39 year olds lost their lives in nashville, where i live three adults lost their lives yesterday was the anniversary of another mass shooting in nashville at the waffle house, where four precious young people lost their lives and we ve had more mass shootings this year. then then, then we can even count because we re not doing anything. and so it is an issue of life or death. it is personal, and it requires us to do things that are out of the ordinary, like protests on the house floor, like bring a casket and say, colleagues look at what we re doing their children dying, a
children dying, and i was shocked. like, you know, that so many countries have so much food, and yet people are dying. and right then i called my chief of staff, and i said we ve got to do something about this. we ve got to create awareness, and we did. i mean, i think within three days we were on an airplane. we came we created awareness. americans responded. they opened their hearts to see people, children just skin and bones, and they responded with their pocket books, and so sometimes they knneed a little nudge, like hey, i know things are tough maybe in your household or, you know, this is a bad month, but hey, look at what somebody else is dealing with. you talked a little bit about your way to connect with people here as an educator. after all these experiences with these young people, young adults, what do you take back to your classroom to share with them? you know, i have so many
nato, whether it was mexico, canada, all of these alliances that we formed. latin america, they were wondering, hey america, what happened to you? we used to be partners, we used to strive towards the same things. not that we all agreed on everything. but certainly, there was a dialogue, and it s sort of like america, you know stepped away. like no, we don t want to deal with every other country. so we want to say, hey, we re back. why do you think it s hard for americans sometimes to pay attention to what s happening here in africa? the one thing i find about americans, and this is what i found the last time. when i came here in 2011. this is how i got here. i was watching tv, i saw these children dying, and i was shocked. that so many countries have so much food and yet people are dying.
it does draw in the whole - community and people who didn t know him are affected - because it s on the doorstep, because this has happened in a place where we live. . and so it does touch - everybody s life in that sense, that this dreadful. thing has happened. the memorial service was held because there was this sense i of, we need to do something. there s that sense of. marking logan s life. ..and acknowledging each other s grief and. - ..and shock. and just being able - to do something to say, you know, this matters. i think like many of these other high profile situations where you have either, you know, a death in school, a school shooting or a tragedy of children dying, or other
my husband is a labourer. we cannot afford to live on his small salary. food prices went up by 80% injune. basic fruit and veg is becoming a luxury. normally, a market like this in colombo would be packed on a weekend afternoon. but traders here say that people can t afford the fuel to get here, nor can they afford the prices once they arrive. just to give you an idea, when i started covering this crisis in april, the price of a small apple like this had already tripled since the start of the year. now it s gone up by five times. so, this has become really expensive? it s forced maria to buy less on her weekly shop. the un says that more than two thirds of sri lankans have cut down on food since the start of the year. how bad could things get? we re trying to avoid a humanitarian crisis. we re not yet at children dying, which is good,