Giffords Urges Graduates at Bard to ‘Be Courageous’
Gabrielle Giffords did not address her gun control advocacy in her speech, but her husband, the astronaut Mark E. Kelly, described their joint efforts to curb gun violence.
By VIVIAN YEE
Published: May 25, 2013
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — Speaking uncertainly but smiling broadly, Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who became a public face of the gun control movement after she was shot in 2011, delivered a kind of blessing in her commencement address to Bard College graduates here on Saturday afternoon, urging them to “be bold, be courageous, be your best.”
Ms. Giffords spoke for no more than two minutes at the commencement ceremony, where she also received an honorary degree, but earned several standing ovations.
She did not address her gun control advocacy, which encountered a setback last month when the Senate blocked background check legislation. Instead, she left it to her husband, the astronaut Mark E. Kelly, to describe their joint efforts to curb gun violence and the shooting in which six people were killed and 13 others were wounded, including Ms. Giffords, by a gunman in Tucson.
Mr. Kelly, who has emerged as an ardent spokesman for his wife, told the audience of Ms. Giffords’s continuing recovery from a head wound, which left her struggling to perform basic tasks, including speaking. He said the gun control issue had moved her to re-enter public life despite her physical limitations.
“What we have been lacking is someone with the courage to not choose sides on this issue but to choose a new path,” Mr. Kelly told graduates and their families, who were gathered under a tent. “Gabby is the moderate and determined voice that the movement for sensible gun legislation needs.”
He added that he and his wife were longtime gun owners with a “strong tradition of guns” in their past and present lives, and that they hoped to represent the majority of Americans who “believe in sensible solutions, like background checks, that will keep us safer but don’t infringe on anybody’s right, like yours, to own a gun if you want to.”
Mr. Kelly criticized the National Rifle Association for obstructing gun control legislation, saying, “They’ve forgotten what they used to stand for, which is gun safety and a proud tradition of hunting, and now they mostly stand for the gun manufacturers.”
Ms. Giffords then walked unsteadily to the lectern, supported by her husband, to deliver her few labored lines. “Graduates, your future shines bright,” she said. “Find your purpose and go for it.”
She continued: “The nation’s counting on you to create, to innovate” — she paused, and seemed to stumble — “to create, to lead, to innovate.”
When she paused and when she finished, she waved and waved again, as if to convey with her hands all she could not say.
It was the end of an academic year marked by violence, as the college’s president, Leon Botstein, noted. First came the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December, then the Boston Marathon bombings in April.
“Few have paid so dearly for their idealism,” said a college trustee, Charles S. Johnson III, as Ms. Giffords was presented with an honorary doctorate in humane letters.
Mr. Kelly and Ms. Giffords are connected to Bard through Pia Carusone, an alumna who was Ms. Giffords’s chief of staff. It was Ms. Carusone who called Mr. Kelly in 2011 to tell him of the shooting.
“Pia called with life-changing news,” he said in his speech. “Very simply, she said, ‘Mark, I don’t know how to tell you this, but Gabby’s been shot.’ ”
“Try to imagine that phone call,” he said. “Nothing in either of our careers could have prepared us for that moment.”
