Speaking to a crowd of hundreds in Portland City Hall's Merrill Auditorium, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said the recent shootings at a Charleston church are a tragic reminder of the problems of gun violence and racism in America.
"We mourn the loss of these individuals gunned down in a massacre of hate. And it is forcing us to mourn another loss as well. It is the loss of our sense of safety," she said. "It is the inability to know whether we will get through the day and not be confronted with gun violence."
She said the shootings point to the need to reexamine the nation's gun laws.
"Guns--no one wants to talk about the guns," Pingree said. "But we have to stop justifying killing by cowering to the notion that it is a 'sacred' right for anyone to bring any gun into any place whenever and whenever they want, no matter whose lives are endangered, and who is gunned down. Or in this case, how sacred the dwelling was."
Pingree also said racism is still a problem in this country, and it exists in personal interactions as well as in the actions of elected officials. In comments that earned a standing ovation from the crowd, Pingree talked about recent efforts in Maine to eliminate general assistance aid to immigrants seeking asylum in Maine.
"This racism is in our lives from the simplest comments and how we treat each other to the conversations and lawsmade in our state house. Right here in our state there are some who think families that have fled violence and persecution in their war-torn countries don't even deserve a hand up as they struggle to build new lives here in our communities. Instead, the word 'immigrant" is used to vilify.'
Full text of the speech is below:
MULTIFAITH GATHERING for Remembrance
Thank you for reminding us of the names of each precious person lost.
For sharing the many prayers
And for the wonderful song.
We are here in Sympathy and to share the sorrow with the families and community that so tragically lost their love ones. They are nine wonderful people who could have been in our community too: An outspoken state senator and pastor who had been standing up for the needs of his community and the rights of everyone to vote, a dedicated track coach a much loved librarian.
We mourn the loss of these individuals gunned down in a massacre of hate.
IT is forcing us to mourn another loss as well --
It is the loss of our sense of safety and feeling more vulnerable in our daily lives. It is the inability to know whether we will get through the day and not be confronted with gun violence.
There are times when we want to believe we are all safe:
When we drop our kids off at school
When we press time clock and go to work
Or like the Lovely Congregants from AME Church who thought they were just going to Wednesday night Bible study in the church where many of their families have attended for generations. There they were, sitting in a room with only the most faithful and dedicated of the Congregation only to be massacred – and by a young man they had welcomed through the door.
We can't pretend that tragedies like these happen in a vacuum.
According to the shooter's manifesto, he got his beliefs from the Council of Conservative Citizens-- A group that routinely gave donations to political candidates and elected officials
This group believes in ideas like these:
That in the United States Black on White Crime isn’t prosecuted
Blacks are taking over our country
That people with a different color skin are inferior and don’t belong.
I think we all know -- Racism hasn’t gone away in our country.
I have been fortunate enough to accompany my colleague John Lewis on a tour of Selma and Montgomery and he has taken us to see some of the most meaningful locations of our country’s civil rights struggles. And so many of those places are churches:
Like the Browne AME Church in Selma where the march across the Edmund Pettus bridge was planned – a march in which Congressman Lewis was beaten and nearly killed.
And we listened to the preacher give a sermon in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
When the sermon was over we were invited to walk down the narrow stairs to the basement where Sunday school was held. That was the same room where one Sunday in 1963, a group of white supremacists planted 15 sticks of dynamite that killed four little girls.
Many of us grew up going to little churches like that, walking down the back stairs to Sunday School orcoming back on a Wednesday night for Bible Study classes. The thing is, for those of us who went to white Churches, we didn’t have to worry about being killed by a bomb on a Sunday morning or a gun on a Wednesday night. Our families always believed we were in the safest place we could be. And we were.
It is hard to believe that wecould be standing here more than 50 years later.
Mourning innocent churchgoers, gathered to study the Bible being gunned down for no reason, for the NON-Reason that people with so much hate in their hearts need to prove the white race is superior and for that reason alone, these kind and gentle people studying their bibles needed to die.
This racism is in our lives from the simplest comments and how we treat each other, to the conversations andlaws made in our state house
Right here in our state there are some who think that families that have fled violence and persecution in their war-torn countries don't even deserve a hand up as they struggle to build new lives here in our communities.
The word "immigrant" is used to vilify. And it's used as code.
And in Washington racism doesn’t escape our President, the first Black President in America, and how he is treated.
Those of us working in Congress hear and see the impact of it every day. We hear it day after day.
And in the streets of American cities time and time again, we have seen how racism perverts our justice system:
Ferguson
Baltimore
Cleveland
McKinney, Texas
North Charleston
And guns--no one wants to talk about the guns.
But let’s talk about it this way. Is this how we want to live? Is this the kind of country we want to be?
We have to stop justifying killing by cowering to the notion that it is a “sacred” right for anyone to bring any gun into any place wherever and whenever they want…..no matter who’s lives are endangered, and who is gunned down – or in this case, how sacred the dwelling was.
We have to stop justifying hate by listening to those who say white people are superior and that it is OK to hate anyone who is “different.”
We’re here to mourn these wonderful people today, and to continue the fight to end racism and gun violence.
But we have to do more than talk. We have to actually bring about change.
The summer of 1963 our country faced racism head on and brought big changes in voting rights laws. Here we are more than 50 years later -- it is time to face it head on again and fight for justice.
Thank you for being here, and for standing together in this fight.
