(Excerpts)
January 31, 2011

"What I'd like to do is talk a bit about the tragedy in Tucson from the perspective of a mayor. We're all in this thing together — this tragedy within our communities that we prepare for but we never know when it's going happen.

"Gabriel Giffords is a great friend of mine. She and I have done things together for the city of Tucson for years and years….She was not afraid to be out in the public's eye. But at ten minutes after ten on that morning, a lone gunman came out of the grocery store and approached the gathering that was there to honor Gabrielle Giffords. He shot 32 times in 15 seconds. If you know anything about guns at all, how hard that is to do. But in 15 seconds 19 people lay on the ground. And now came the heros. Heros came from all over….

"Two gentlemen at the right precise moment tackled the shooter, dropped him to the street. A woman who was down there injured reached over and picked up the clip because he was trying to reload again. He had 100 shots that he was prepared to fire. If he could do 32 in 15 seconds it was not going to end there….

"Let me tell you about mayors. I was notified at 20 minutes after ten. I had three words: Gabby's been shot. For mayors who are involved in these kinds of traumas, you know exactly what to do; it's kind of built into mayors. Whether it's a hurricane, a tornado or a fire, we know what to do…. I got to the hospital emergency room…and set about making sure that we knew what the truth was — what is the truth and managing the media because the media wanted to know what was happening. We the mayors must get to the truth and must speak continuously…. For the next four days that's what I did….

"Mayor Villaraigosa gave me a call on Sunday; Mayor Nutter gave me a call; Mayor Kautz gave me a call; and they said: What can we do to help." I said …why don't we come together; why don't we bring the mayors together, why don't we start talking about how we can treat each other better, how we can be kinder to each other, how can we care about each other? And out of that grew the civility accord that is being brought to you today….

"I will be very pleased to sign the accord. I'm going to sign it today for Judge John Roll, for Christina Green, for Gabe Zimmerman, Dorwan Stoddard, Dorothy Morris, and Phyllis Schneck, those that gave their lives, and for Gabby, who is recovering, and for the other 12 people that were injured that day."