President Obama ended his speech making sure we understood our responsibilities to each other, when he said, "We are citizens. It’s a word that doesn’t just describe our nationality or legal status. It describes the way we’re made. It describes what we believe. It captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations; that our rights are wrapped up in the rights of others; and that well into our third century as a nation, it remains the task of us all, as citizens of these United States, to be the authors of the next great chapter in our American story."
Donna Hood knows the pain of the parents of Hadiya Pendleton. Her child was shot in the back too by a bullet that was not intended to be the author of his death certificate. Nothing prepared Donna Hood for this moment. And nothing prepared Hadiya's parents either. But, as a nation, we must uplift these incredible people with compassion and generosity and author that next chapter of our story, where black children are no longer living in fear of gunshots, but rather living with hope of a promised tomorrow
