EVANSTON,
IL -- Our community grows stronger every day because, through our action,
we have committed ourselves to implementing the values that we all hold
dear. Tonight’s memorial service is an example of such action.
It not only helps our healing process, but it also gives voice to our shared
commitment to stand together against any and all acts of hate. I
want to congratulate the organizers of this Memorial Service, and I also
want to praise Mrs. Byrdsong for her commitment to building a safe community.
It is through your efforts that we will make a difference.
Last
July 4th, while families and communities were celebrating the birth of
our great nation, a man with a gun changed our community forever.
Tonight,
we are here to remember and celebrate the lives of Ricky Byrdsong and Woo-Joon
Yoon. Ricky Byrdsong was a loving husband to Sherialyn and a devoted
father to Sabrina, Kelley and Ricky, Jr. He was a leader in the community,
and a man of deep religious faith. In Bloomington, Indiana, Woo-Joon Yoon,
an Asian doctoral student at Indiana University, was killed as he was leaving
a Korean church with a group of friends.
In
addition, we are also here to recall the terror felt by the other victims
whose lives were irrevocably changed that weekend. Shots were fired at
six Jewish men peacefully observing the Sabbath and an Asian couple sitting
in their car. These people were targeted not because of anything
any of them had done, but because of their race, ethnicity, and religion.
We
are blessed to live in a community enriched by its diversity. As
your Representative in Congress, I am committed to making our neighborhoods
and streets safe for our children and our families. We must pass
common sense gun safety legislation and expand the Hate Crimes Prevention
Act to punish those who target victims based on gender, disability or sexual
orientation.
I
am proud to be a part of this community-- a community overflowing with
activists who are committed to working for peace, for social justice, and
for the protection of all people, no matter who they are, how they look,
or where they worship. |
