You cannot make this up. On Fathers Day, I sat alone by Jaime’s graveside and asked for a sign from her. I asked for a sign that she was Ok and that she was OK with what I am doing in my fight for gun safety. I wanted to know that she was with me. Tonight, I got my sign.
Tonight the Republican candidates for Governor will be debating at the Sunshine Summit in the same hotel that my daughters dance competition team is competing at. Jaime was supposed to be there competing and we were supposed to be there with her. .
Because of the strange coincidence, Jaime's team wanted to make their presence known. Keep in mind, these are teenage girls and not threatening. They simply wore Orange Ribbons For Jaime shirts in the same public lobby where the people from the Republican summit were.
That is it. Amazingly, security for the event made them leave the public lobby. I am sure that they will all talk tough behind closed doors and in the debate tonight, but they could not come face to face with a competition teenage dance team who just lost a dance sister as a
result of gun violence. They could not handle the truth. They will most certainly talk about guns, but they will do so while hiding from the reality of gun violence. I am so proud of the dance team for deciding to make their presence felt.
These vile candidates, Putnam and Desantis, have simply shown that they are weak. We will make sure they will see the devastation of the gun policy that they support first hand. They will come face to face with an orange wave.
To Jaime's dance family, thank you for making your presence known. #OrangeWaveInNovember
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It appears Kavanaugh replied in writing regarding the handshake, I wish he would have said this last week when Senator Lindsey Graham asked about it. I was still there and would have been happy to have spoken with him. That said, regarding his response, not accurate.
Attached is a photo that I took from my seat to show how close I was to him all morning. I was not with protesters. Behind me were rows of other invited guests and behind the invited guests were tables for all of the press. Behind that were individual protersters escorted in
and out by police. Where I was located, no protesters could get close to. At the time of handshake, I was talking to someone else in this area. Yes, when he got up, I touched him and he turned and I extended my arm to say "Hello, my name is Fred Guttenber, father of
This is a picture of my entire extended family taken August 2017 at the Freedom Tower. This morning I will be back at the Freedom Tower at 8:46am for the 17 year rememberance event. When this picture was taken, my brother Michael Guttenberg was still alive.
Unfortunately he passed away last October as a result of the cancer that resulted from his heroic service as a physician who was at the WTC when the buildings collapsed and who then spent 16 days at ground zero. This photo also includes my daughter Jaime Guttenberg
who was murdered at her Parkland school on February 14th. I lost my brother and daughter this past year to American tragedies. In one, America did take action and this building and the memorial are a sign of American greatness and how America can respond to difficult issues.
As I sit here looking out my hotel window at the Statue Of Liberty, I am thinking about what it means to be American. This statue is a symbol of our freedom. This statue belongs to everyone. For those who disagree with me, and think the concept of freedom only belongs to them,
it does not. I am free to pursue the founding ideals of this country as well without fear of gun violence. I am free to defend the 2nd amendment in doing so, which I do defend. I do not mind those who disagree, but why is it that the side that disagrees with me feels they must do
so with anger, vitriol, cursing and a general lack of understanding of what this statue and our democracy and constitution mean? Go ahead and disagree, but do so without the cursing and nastiness. It may be reality if they remove the cursing and insults, there is not much to say.
As I sit here for my final morning this week in DC, I want to reflect on the past couple of days. Since Jaime was murdered on February 14th, I have dedicated my life to advocacy on the cause of gun safety. Anyone who has followed me knows that I try to talk to everyone.
I go up to everyone and I introduce myself the same way which is "Hi, my name is Fred Guttenberg and I am the father of Jaime Guttenberg who was murdered in Parkland." I introduce myself that way every time intentionally so that when people do speak to me, they know up front
that it will be part of the discussion. It is my way of being honest from the start. What happened this week was quite simple. I was invited as a guest to the hearing. I was sitting 3 rows behind Kavanaugh and to his right. I was introduced. I was not one of the circus hecklers
If any friends still have accounts with Wells Fargo, my advice is to switch. Based upon this article, and treatment of @nikkifried last week in her political campaign, I have decided to go public about my interactions with the @WellsFargo CEO Tim Sloan. money.cnn.com/2018/08/27/med…
As most know, I have spent the months since Jaime's murder reaching out to businesses and banks to change their business model. For example, we did communicate with Bank Of America and as a bank they did the right thing. Back on April 11th,
I began communicating directly with CEO Tim Sloan via email. I kept my interactions private with hope that Wells would eventually do the right thing. The result of this communication was that Tim Sloan put me in touch with other executives from his team who I did speak with over
I have been thinking about the school security decisions taking place and conversations that are taking place amongst parents. I am concerned by some of the nastiness between parents. We do not all need to agree, but we can be respectful and supportive of each others opinions.
I have been accused by some of not saying enough and only caring about guns. That is not true. It is correct to say that I believe firmly that if the killer could not have legally purchased his weapon, my daughter and 16 others would be alive.
As a reminder, he was not an enrolled student any longer. I also believe that if he was blocked from entering the school, his determination to kill would have forced him to do so in the parking lot as students were exiting in a mass crowd of kids as they did every day.