Giffords shows us a hard-won miracle, hope in 146 words
Of all the speeches thus far delivered at the Democratic National Convention, the one I’ll remember was perhaps the shortest of them all.
In just 146 words, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords spoke in support of gun control and Joe Biden.
But what I heard? It wasn’t about politics at all but about the power of hope and our tremendous capacity for resilience.
I know a bit of the path Giffords had to travel to get there, behind that podium. My son suffered a severe brain injury as a child and we traveled a stretch of that road, though his injuries were nowhere near what she suffered.
It’s been nearly 10 years since that awful morning in January 2011, when a Giffords-obsessed gunman opened fire in a Safeway parking lot just north of Tucson, killing six people and injuring 13.
Giffords was shot from three feet away, suffering a devastating bullet to the brain. She underwent hours of intensive reconstructive surgery and years of grueling therapy.
She lost her job as a United States congresswoman and her ability to walk and talk as she once did.
Faced with such challenges and the changes to her life, it would have been easy to give up, to become bitter or to wallow in self pity. Instead, we in Arizona have watched over the years as she has, instead, moved forward.
Giffords has done some miraculous things over the last 10 years.
We’ve seen her radiant smile and we’ve seen her speak a few words in public now and then, though only a few and always spoken haltingly.
We’ve seen her on her recumbent bike, using her left hand and her left foot to propel herself for dozens of miles at charity events.
And on Wednesday, we saw her deliver the longest speech she has ever given since Jan. 8, 2011.
“I’ve known the darkest of days, days of pain and uncertain recovery,” she said.
“But confronted by despair, I’ve summoned hope. Confronted by paralysis and aphasia, I’ve responded with grit and determination. I put one foot in front of the other. I found one word and then I found another.
“My recovery is a daily fight, but fighting makes me stronger. Words once came easily. Today, I struggle to speak. But I have not lost my voice.”
It’s a pity that Gabby Giffords’ speech had to be pre-recorded, that she couldn’t stand there on the stage in a raucous Milwaukee convention hall and hear what her words meant to so many.
But all across America, I imagine she got a standing O.