UVALDE CITIZENS DEMAND GUN CONTROL

Joe Biden trolled for shedding tears at Texas school memorial: 'Empathy without works is useless'

Joe Biden and Jill Biden arrived in Texas to console the families of the victims of the deadliest Uvalde school shooting 

 

By Shifali Gorka 

 

meaww

May 29, 2022 

 

 

President Joe and first lady Jill Biden to pay their respects at a makeshift memorial outside of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrived in Texas on Sunday morning, May 2019, to pay their respects at a makeshift memorial outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and to comfort victims of the deadliest school shooting in Texas history when a Sagittarius slaughtered 19 children and 2 adults on Tuesday May 24th. As they exited a church service in the city, an onlooker called out to the President, “Do something!” “We will,” Biden replied. It was the second time in as many weeks that they mourned alongside families whose loved ones died in a mass shooting.

The First Lady carried a large bouquet of white roses to place in front of Robb Elementary’s brick sign. The Bidens, both dressed in black, stood silent for a moment in the midday sun. The President made the sign of the cross and shed a tear. After speaking with the principal and local officials, Biden and the first lady walked to a series of memorial wreaths, each marking one of the children or teachers who were killed. They touched cardboard cutouts of each in silent observation, their photos on the front surrounded by garlands of white flowers.

The Bidens attended mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller invited children from the devastated congregation to sit in front. “Our response must be hope and healing,” he said, urging the community to “resolve to support one another with respect for our differences.” And later in the afternoon, Biden and the First Lady met privately with family members of the victims at the Uvalde County Arena.

The White House tweeted about Biden’s visit to the Robb Elementary School memorial.

However, he was heavily criticized and trolled for shedding a tear and showing empathy at the Uvalde School Memorial. People blamed the government for the attack. One user wrote: “Empathy without works is useless”

Another user wrote: “It would seriously be better if he didn’t go. Let the parents mourn. Don’t give them false hopes.”

One user wrote: “We need change. We need laws that protect people, not gun manufacturers. Our government is failing us. Both parties are failing us to show that we are done with inaction.”

Another user trolled him, writing, “Where will his next massacre tour stop?”

The frustration of the angry public could be felt at the memorial. Some onlookers waiting for Biden began screaming as Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott arrived to escort the president. “Please Governor Abbott, help Uvalde County,” a man shouted. “We need change. Our children don’t deserve it.” As Biden drove away, similar cries for help could be heard before getting into his vehicle. A day before Biden’s visit, he spoke to the victims’ parents about his Sunday meeting.

“I will be traveling to Uvalde, Texas to speak with these families. As I speak, these parents are literally preparing to bury their children in the United States of America, to bury their children. There’s too much violence, too much fear, too much grief,” Biden told graduates at the University of Delaware’s graduation ceremony on Saturday.

For Biden, the meeting should bring comfort to grieving families in their darkest moments. He often draws on his own experience of losing two children — a young daughter to a car accident and his adult son to brain cancer — to comfort other parents.

“Losing a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. There’s a hole in your chest and you feel like you’re being pulled in and never get out. It suffocates. And it’s never quite the same,” Biden said on the night of the Roosevelt Room shooting, shortly after returning from a two-country visit to Asia.

In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Roland Gutierrez, a Democratic state senator from Texas, was asked if the country “has a gun problem or a security problem,” Gutierrez replied, “It’s absolutely a gun problem, and it’s all of that Things,” he said. Abbott believes it’s a mental health problem. Sure it is. Well, then fund it right. We’re dead in the United States as far as mental health funding goes. You know, we have one Crisis of infinite proportions in this United States.” “Ultimately, if we don’t have access to militarized weapons, that’s not going to happen, just as it doesn’t happen in the rest of the world,” he added.