by Rochelle van Amber, BBC News, for the BBC's Biodun Iginla 

TUCSON, Ariz. – Summoning the soul of a nation, President Barack Obama on Wednesday implored Americans to honor those slain and injured in the Arizona shootings by becoming better people, telling a polarized citizenry that it is time to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds." Following a hospital bedside visit with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the target of the assassination, he said: "She knows we're here, and she knows we love her."

In an electrifying moment, the president revealed that Giffords, who on Saturday was shot point-blank in the head, had opened her eyes for the first time shortly after his hospital visit. First lady Michelle Obamaheld hands with Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, as the news brought soaring cheers from thousands gathered for a memorial service.

Obama bluntly conceded that there is no way to know what triggered the shooting rampage that left six people dead, 13 others wounded and the nation shaken. He tried instead to leave indelible memories of the people who were gunned down, and to rally the country to use the moment as a reflection on the nation's behavior and compassion.

"I believe we can be better," Obama said to a capacity crowd in the university's basketball arena and to countless others watching around the country.

"Those who died here, those who saved lives here — they help me believe," the president said. "We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us."

In crafting his comments, Obama clearly sought a turning point in the raw debate that has defined national politics. He faced the expectations to do more than console, but to encourage a new day of civility, all without getting overly political in a memorial service.

Obama settled on a theme of challenging the country to have a debate that is worthy of those who died. He tapped into the raging debate about the role of incendiary rhetoric without dwelling on it. "Let's remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy. It did not," the president said.

After offering personal accounts of every person who died, he challenged anyone listening to think of how to honor their memories, and he was not shy about offering direction. He admonished against any instinct to point blame or to drift into political pettiness or to latch onto simple explanations that may have no merit.

The president said it was OK, even essential, for the country to suddenly be debating gun control, mental health services and the motivations of the killer.

But then he added: "At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized — at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do — it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds," the president said.

The shooting happened as Giffords, a three-term Democrat who represents southern Arizona, was holding a community outreach event in a Tucson shopping center parking lot Saturday. A gunman shot her in the head and worked his way down the line of people waiting to talk with her, law enforcement officials said. The attack ended when bystanders tackled the man, Jared Lee Loughner, 22, who is in custody.

Obama's speech, by turns somber and hopeful, at times took on the tone of an exuberant pep rally as he heralded the men who wrestled the gunman to the ground, the woman who grabbed the shooter's ammunition, the doctors and nurses who treated the injured, the intern who rushed to Giffords' aid. The crowd erupted in multiple standing ovations as each was singled out for praise.

The president ended up speaking for more than half an hour, doubling the expected length of his comments.

Memories of the six people killed dominated much of Obama's speech.

The president, for example, recalled how federal Judge John Roll was on his way from attending Mass when he stopped to say hello to Giffords and was gunned down; Dorothy Morris, shielded by her husband, but killed nonetheless; and Phyllis Schneck, a Republican who took a shine to Giffords, a Democrat, and wanted to know her better.

He spoke at length of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, the only girl on her Little League team, who often said she wanted to be the first woman to play in the major leagues. She had just been elected to the student council at her elementary school and had an emerging interest in public service.

"I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it," Obama said. The little girl was born on Sept. 11, 2001, and had been featured in a book about 50 babies born that day. The inscriptions near her photo spoke of wishes for a happy child's life, including splashing in puddles.

Said Obama: "If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today."

Obama hit an emotional high point when he told of Giffords opening her eyes for the first time not long after his visit to her bedside.

"Gabby opened her eyes, so I can tell you: She knows we are here, she knows we love her, and she knows that we are rooting for her through what is undoubtedly going to be a difficult journey," Obama said.

The lawmakers who were in Giffords' hospital room when she opened her eyes were three of her close female friends in Congress: House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.

"It felt like we were watching a miracle," Wasserman Schultz told reporters traveling back to Washington with her on Air Force One. "The strength that you could see flowing out of her, it was like she was trying to will her eyes open."

Giffords is expected to survive, although her condition and the extent of her recovery remain in doubt.

As finger-pointing emerged in Washington and beyond over whether harsh political rhetoric played a role in creating motivation for the attack, Obama sought to calm the rhetoric.

"Bad things happen," he said, "and we must guard against simple explanations in the aftermath."

He spoke of decency and goodness, declaring: "The forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us."

Obama's appeal for civility played out against a deepening political debate. Earlier in the day, Republican Sarah Palin, criticized by some for marking Giffords' district with the crosshairs of a gun sight during last fall's campaign, had taken to Facebook to accuse pundits and journalists of using the attack to incite hatred and violence.

Obama spoke to a crowd of more than 13,000 in the arena and thousands more listened on from an overflow area in the football stadium. About a mile away, at University Medical Center, Giffords lay fighting for her life. Other victims also remained there hospitalized.

The memorial service was an important part of the mourning process for some of those who had lined up hours in advance to gain a seat.

"If we don't say goodbye and have a chance to say goodbye in an appropriate way, it will linger," said Patty Sirls, 62. "So, for me, it's a closure."

___

By MARK LANDLER and ROBERT F. WORTH for the BBC's BIODUN IGINLA

Published: January 12, 2011

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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 12 -- Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords continues to make progress, her doctors said Tuesday, breathing on her own and moving both arms just four days after an assassin's bullet struck her brain.

"She has a 101 percent chance of surviving," Dr. Peter Rhee, chief of trauma at Tucson's University Medical Center told the Associated Press. "She will not die."

Dr. Michael Lemole, Giffords' neurosurgeon, added that doctors have left a breathing tube in the 40-year-old woman to protect her airways, but she is drawing breaths on her own, and is alert and responding to doctors, the APreported.

"I'm very encouraged by the fact she's done so well," Lemole said. "Given the violent nature of her injury -- a 9mm bullet through the left side of her brain -- "she has no right to look this good, and she does," the Washington Post reported.

Giffords' doctors said Monday that she was able to follow simple instructions.

They said Giffords responded to verbal commands by raising two fingers of her left hand and even managed to give a thumbs-up, the AP reported. They also said her brain remained swollen, but the pressure wasn't increasing --- a good sign for her recovery.

By Tuesday, the doctors said Giffords could raise both of her arms.

"That's why we are much more optimistic and we can breathe a collective sigh of relief after about the third day," LeMole, who described Giffords' condition as stable, said Monday.

Still, experts said Giffords likely suffered some permanent damage, but it's not yet clear how extensive that damage might be.

Dr. David Langer, director of cerebrovascular research at the Cushing Neuroscience Institutes, part of North Shore/Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Great Neck, N.Y., said: "She's probably going to survive in all likelihood, but months or even a year from now we may not know what her ultimate prognosis will be."

"She'll likely have a deficit in the near term, but we don't know if she'll end up in a wheelchair like James Brady [President Ronald Reagan's press secretary who was injured by a bullet during a 1981 assassination attempt on the president] or a functioning Congresswoman. We can't know," added Langer, who was not involved with Giffords' care.

Giffords was gravely injured, 13 others were wounded, and six people, including a 9-year-old girl, were killed when a 22-year-old man, Jared Loughner, pulled out a semiautomatic Glock pistol in front of a Safeway supermarket in Tucson, where Giffords was meeting constituents. A Democrat, she was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2006.

The fact that Giffords is alive is a bit of a miracle.

According to Langer, 90 percent of people with gunshot wounds to the head die.

"This sounds like a relatively mild form of a gunshot wound and that does happen, based on the trajectory," Langer explained. "Certainly she has the opportunity to be as best as she can, given the aggressiveness of what [her doctors] have done. She has a chance of making a good recovery, but good has a lot of different meanings."

In the Tuesday news briefing, Giffords' doctors revised their interpretation of the path of the bullet, saying they now believe she was shot in the forehead with the bullet traversing the left side of the brain and exiting out the back. They had previously thought the bullet had entered through the back of Giffords' head.

The latest conclusions came from a review of X-rays and brain scans and discussions with two outside physicians, the AP reported.

"The trajectory [of the bullet] itself is not that different but it's reversed. Instead of being shot in the back of the head and exiting from the front, now it's shot into the forehead above the eye, which is the frontal lobe," said Dr. Anders Cohen, chief of neurosurgery and spine surgery at The Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York City.

The key in trying to forecast her recovery lies in whether Rep. Gifford is left-handed or right-handed, he added. Almost all right-handed people are left-brain dominant and the left brain controls cognitive function and some speech. Left-handed people can be dominant on either side.

"If she's left-handed, odds are that the statistics are more in her favor that there'll be fewer cognitive and, perhaps, speech concerns," Cohen said.

Although there's been some speculation that Giffords may be left-handed, this hasn't been reported definitively.

Much also depends on the speed at which the bullet entered the brain. Speed sends off shock waves that can damage surrounding areas. There may also be bleeding or bone fragments, which exacerbate an injury, Cohen explained.

"It's a series of hurdles for the victim," he explained. "Whatever part of the brain that that bullet went through, even if it was a small cylinder of trajectory, that [area] is now permanently injured [but] the repercussions are unknown. There's some permanent and some recoverable damage depending on how injured that part of the brain gets."

"It's a traumatic brain injury [but] she's young and she's otherwise healthy," Cohen said. "She'll be able to recover some and, depending on the injury, her recovery can take up