“If It Feels Right, I Might Sing It”: How Obama’s Most Famous Speech Almost Didn’t Happen

The day after nine people were slaughtered inside their Charleston, SC church, in June of 2015, would be the fourteenth time President Barack Obama addressed the nation after a mass shooting. The fourteenth time I’d have to find a new way for him to offer some reassurance that the world would keep spinning, even when it was full of holes. To deliver a statement in the immediate aftermath was a job requirement. To deliver a eulogy or not–that was the question. I thought back to twenty-six months earlier when Senate Republicans blocked a vote on universal background checks following the… Read Full Article