I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who served on the @January6thCmte. It was tough and painstaking work. It was service to we the people! They acted as investigators, and they were in pursuit of the truth at every step of the way. None of us should want anyone other than the very best person to occupy the highest office in our land. We should want that person to be filled with integrity, honesty, & a commitment to uphold the law of our land. It’s not about the party, it’s about the character of the person.

On this day in 1963, my uncle was killed by an assassin’s bullet. I was in 3rd grade at the time. I was taken out of class and sent home. This day is forever seared into my heart and mind. Anyone who’s impacted by gun violence or any other shocking death is traumatized by that day, by that experience, forever. You have to do deep trauma work to move on from the age that it happened. Work that involves your heart, your body, your small children self.

5 beautiful lives were taken in a shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs just past midnight on Sunday, and many more were injured, as they were either working or enjoying a night out. 5 lives who would have been joining family members and friends at Thanksgiving dinner this week. Victims of the shooting at the LGBTQ-friendly club include 2 bartenders, the mother of an 11-year-old girl, and 2 other clubgoers enjoying a carefree night before a lone gunman started firing: Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Ashley Paugh, Derrick Rump, and Raymond Green Vance.

On this day in 1968, before many of you might even have been born, my uncle, Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down while running for president. Gunned down on his victory night. He left a devastated pregnant wife and ten children and a shattered extended family. Never doubt that gun violence lives on in the hearts, minds, and bodies of those left behind. Never doubt the trauma that gun violence leaves in a family. It wreaks havoc. It devastates lives, and in his case, it altered a history that could have been, that might have been.

I was honored to give the commencement address today at the @UofMichigan Graduation, but I’ll be honest, I was fearful. Fearful that I wouldn’t have anything to say, fearful that they wouldn’t care about what I had to say, & fearful that they would rather hear from someone else. But after @CoachJim4UM, @MarySueColeman, & my kids all talked some sense into me, I realized I was hiding behind my fears. In fact, those fears are an illusion, & I do have something to say. We all have something to say & do. #classof2022