Announced this afternoon was Cornell’s 2015 convocation speaker, Gabrielle Giffords, a former Democrat congresswoman from Arizona and a current gun control advocate.Giffords obtained a masters degree in regional planning from Cornell in 1996.
In 2011, Giffords was nearly assassinated by Jared Lee Loughner, who shot Giffords in the head and killed six others. Twenty in total were injured before bystanders at the campaign event subdued Loughner, who is suspected of mental illness.
Giffords mounted an incredible recovery effort after being put into a medically induced coma and undergoing physical therapy. In 2013 she and her husband Mark Kelly became gun control advocates.
While I don’t agree with the aims of her advocacy or her other political views, I respect this selection. No matter her views, anyone who can overcome what she went through is one whose words we should listen to.
