{"id":20512,"date":"2016-06-20T06:24:25","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T13:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=20512"},"modified":"2016-06-20T06:27:06","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T13:27:06","slug":"president-obamas-weekly-address-standing-with-orlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=20512","title":{"rendered":"President Obama&#8217;s Weekly Address : Standing with Orlando"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;It\u2019s been less than a week since the deadliest mass shooting in American history.  And foremost in all of our minds has been the loss and the grief felt by the people of Orlando, especially our friends who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.  I visited with the families of many of the victims on Thursday.  And one thing I told them is that they\u2019re not alone.  The American people, and people all over the world, are standing with them \u2013 and we always will.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nIxM8rL5GVE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The investigation is ongoing, but we know that the killer was an angry and disturbed individual who took in extremist information and propaganda over the internet, and became radicalized.  During his killing spree, he pledged allegiance to ISIL, a group that\u2019s called on people around the world to attack innocent civilians. <\/p>\n<p>We are and we will keep doing everything in our power to stop these kinds of attacks, and to ultimately destroy ISIL.  The extraordinary people in our intelligence, military, homeland security, and law enforcement communities have already prevented many attacks, saved many lives, and we won\u2019t let up. <\/p>\n<p>Alongside the stories of bravery and healing and coming together over the past week, we\u2019ve also seen a renewed focus on reducing gun violence.  As I said a few days ago, being tough on terrorism requires more than talk.  Being tough on terrorism, particularly the sorts of homegrown terrorism that we\u2019ve seen now in Orlando and San Bernardino, means making it harder for people who want to kill Americans to get their hands on assault weapons that are capable of killing dozens of innocents as quickly as possible.  That\u2019s something I\u2019ll continue to talk about in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also part of something that I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about this week \u2013 and that\u2019s the responsibilities we have to each other.  That\u2019s certainly true with Father\u2019s Day upon us.<\/p>\n<p>I grew up without my father around.  While I wonder what my life would have been like if he had been a greater presence, I\u2019ve also tried extra hard to be a good dad for my own daughters.  Like all dads, I worry about my girls\u2019 safety all the time.  Especially when we see preventable violence in places our sons and daughters go every day \u2013 their schools and houses of worship, movie theaters, nightclubs, as they get older.  It\u2019s unconscionable that we allow easy access to weapons of war in these places \u2013 and then, even after we see parents grieve for their children, the fact that we as a country do nothing to prevent the next heartbreak makes no sense. <\/p>\n<p>So this past week, I\u2019ve also thought a lot about dads and moms around the country who\u2019ve had to explain to their children what happened in Orlando.  Time and again, we\u2019ve observed moments of silence for victims of terror and gun violence.  Too often, those moments have been followed by months of silence.  By inaction that is simply inexcusable.  If we\u2019re going to raise our kids in a safer, more loving world, we need to speak up for it.  We need our kids to hear us speak up about the risks guns pose to our communities, and against a status quo that doesn\u2019t make sense.  They need to hear us say these things even when those who disagree are loud and are powerful.  We need our kids to hear from us why tolerance and equality matter \u2013 about the times their absence has scarred our history and how greater understanding will better the future they will inherit.  We need our kids to hear our words \u2013 and also see us live our own lives with love.<\/p>\n<p>And we can\u2019t forget our responsibility to remind our kids of the role models whose light shines through in times of darkness.  The police and first responders, the lifesaving bystanders and blood donors.  Those who comfort mourners and visit the wounded.  The victims whose last acts on this earth helped others to safety.  They\u2019re not just role models for our kids \u2013 their actions are examples for all of us.<\/p>\n<p>To be a parent is to come to realize not everything is in our control.  But as parents, we should remember there\u2019s one responsibility that\u2019s always in our power to fulfill: our obligation to give our children unconditional love and support; to show them the difference between right and wrong; to teach them to love, not to hate; and to appreciate our differences not as something to fear, but as a great gift to cherish.<\/p>\n<p>To me, fatherhood means being there.  So in the days ahead, let\u2019s be there for each other.  Let\u2019s be there for our families, and for those that are hurting.  Let\u2019s come together in our communities and as a country.  And let\u2019s never forget how much good we can achieve simply by loving one another.<\/p>\n<p>Happy Father\u2019s Day to all the dads out there, and have a great weekend.<\/p>\n<p>###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;It\u2019s been less than a week since the deadliest mass shooting in American history. And foremost in all of our minds has been the loss and the grief felt by the people of Orlando, especially our friends who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. I visited with the families of many of the victims [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Fullscreen-capture-6202016-62546-AM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}