8:02pm: President Obama arrives at the University of Arizona to cheering crowds. This sounds like a football game, I'm sorry, but is this really appropriate?
8:03pm: The service begins with music by the band.
8:05pm: Band is finished playing. Applause. Did you know the McKale Center, where this event is being held, holds 14,000 people?
8:06pm: Program begins with Carlos Gonzales, to offer a Native American blessing.
8:07pm: The President and First Lady are sitting with Rep. Giffords' intern, Daniel Hernandez, who is credited with saving the Congresswoman's life, because he stopped her bleeding.
8:09pm: "Let us honor the families of those that have passed on," Gonzales said. He went on to encourage the use of humor, where appropriate to help.
8:10pm: "Let us all receive strength to meet the great challenges that our country faces," Gonzales adds.
*Maybe I'm being overly dramatic here, but is hooting and hollering and so much applause appropriate here? I'm willing to discuss.
8:12pm: Gonzales also just prayed for his son who is in Afghanistan. "A little blessing to him, too."
8:14pm: Native American blessing complete.
8:16pm: Dr. Robert Shelton, President of UA at the podium now.
8:17pm: Star Spangled Banner
8:17pm: Dr. Shelton: "How could such a thing happen? And how could it happen here?"
8:18pm: Shelton: By hosting this ceremony we hope we can begin the process of healing.
8:20pm: Shelton: We have great leadership to help us through these times. Many of those leaders are here tonight to offer their support.
8:21pm: Standing ovation for Daniel Hernandez, Jr, who is seated next to the President. Crowd continues clapping and whistling.
8:23pm: UA Student Body President speaking now. "We need to continue being devoted public servants and citizens," she says Rep. Giffords would want. "Our community will not be silenced and our Representative will not be silenced."
8:26pm: Hernandez: I humbly refuse the title hero. He says Giffords, first responders, victims, doctors are the real heroes.
8:28pm: *Crowd update: The crowd inside is 14,300. Plus another 10,000 are watching in the overflow area in Arizona Stadium.
8:29pm: Dr. Shelton introducing Gov. Jan Brewer.
8:30pm: Gov. Brewer also thanks Daniel Hernandez for his courage that "likely saved Gabby Giffords' life." She also thanks the President for coming "to help us with our healing."
8:30pm: Gov. Brewer to Obama: Your presence reminds us we are not alone in our sorrow. "There is no way to measure what Tucson and all of Arizona lost this past Saturday."
8:31pm: Gov. Brewer mentions those who were killed by name, "There's no way to measure the loss."
8:32pm:Gov. Brewer: We can never know what Christina may have become.
8:33pm: Gov. Brewer: Saturday's gunfire pierced our sense of well being. It raised questions of which we could make no sense. Questions begging for answers that will no time soon come. "This state will not be shredded by one bad man's act of darkness."
8:34pm: Gov. Brewer: "We will remember what it's like to smile again."
8:37pm: This ceremony, at times, does seem a bit like a pep rally. But I'm not one to judge anyone's grief. It's a tough time. I say let people grieve how they have to grieve. A lot of young people are there. Keep that in mind.
8:36pm: Dr. Shelton introduces former Arizona Governor, and current Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano. She takes the podium to loud cheers. "Thank you Tucson, thank you Arizona."
8:36pm: Someone in the crowd shouts, "We miss you."
8:37pm: Secretary Napolitano: Quotes Old Testament, Isaiah: "Comfort, yes, comfort my people." "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a way for our God." "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed."
8:38pm: Secretary Napolitano: "The everlasting God, the lord, the creator of the ends of the earth neither faints nor grows weary." She's quoting Isaiah 40.
8:40: Attorney General Eric Holder's turn. He's reading from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians.
*I have to say, I'm impressed with the amount of scripture here!*
8:41pm: AG Holder: "We look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen." He was quoting 2 Corinthians 4.
8:43pm: Dr. Shelton is now introducing the President.
8:45pm: Obama takes the stage to a cheering crowd. He's wearing a black suit, black tie. Six thank you's and he says "Please be seated." The cheering starts back up again. A couple people shout, "We love you!"
8:45pm: Obama: "I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today, and will stand by you tomorrow."
8:45pm: Obama: "We mourn with you for the fallen. We join you in your grief. And we add our faith to yours that Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the other living victims of this tragedy pull through."
8:46pm: Now it's President Obama's turn to read from scripture: "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day." (That's from Psalm 46, folks.
8:48pm: Obama: "the six people who lost their lives on Saturday – they too represented what is best in America." Now he's mentioning the victims one by one. Starting with Judge John Roll.
The President is paying respect to each of the victims. He's mentioned George and Dorothy Morris, Phyllis Schneck, Dorwan Stoddard, Gabe Zimmerman. And finally Christina-Taylor Green.
8:55pm: Obama, who visited Congresswoman Giffords before arriving at the memorial service said "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time!"
8:56pm: Obama: She knows we are here. She knows we are rooting for her on what is undoubtedly going to be a difficult journey.
8:57pm: Obama to Daniel Hernandez, "You are a hero." I'm pretty sure when the President tells you this, and claps for you, you just have to take it. Just sayin.'
*I can tell you this. This part was scripted: "she knows we’re here and she knows we love her and she knows that we will be rooting for her throughout what will be a difficult journey." But the part about Rep. Giffords opening her eyes was not. He added that, last minute, after the visit to the hospital.*
8:59pm: Obama: "Heroism is here, all around us, in the hearts of so many of our fellow citizens, just waiting to be summoned – as it was on Saturday morning."
*Someone from the crowd just shouted "That's right!" Makes me feel like I'm in church.
*Folks, I think the "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time" line will be the big "soundbite" of the night for the President. Watch the open on the Today Show and Good Morning America tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'm right about this.*
9:02pm: Obama: "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."
9:03pm: Obama with the Bible now: "In the words of Job, “when I looked for light, then came darkness.” Bad things happen, and we must guard against simple explanations in the aftermath."
9:04pm: Obama: "what we can’t do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another." Soundbite number two alert!
9:05pm: Obama: "Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together."
9:07pm: *I'm noticing how grey the President has gotten. I see people tweeting lots of nasty comments about how this is a "political rally." I see (and hear) why they feel that way. Not to play sides here, folks, but remember this is not an event that was put together by the White House. It was organized by the University of Arizona. And it's a room full of college students. Let's let them grieve how they grieve. Okay. Getting off my soap box now, and back on board.
9:10pm: Obama: Mentioning 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, "If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let’s make sure it’s worthy of those we have lost. Let’s make sure it’s not on the usual plane of politics and point scoring and pettiness that drifts away with the next news cycle."
9:12pm: Obama: "let’s remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy, but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them proud."
9:13pm: Obama just used the word bequeath. King James version, anyone?
9:13pm: Obama: "Those who died here, those who saved lives here – they help me believe. 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."
9:15pm: Obama: Speaking of 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, "I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us – we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations."
*Note: President Obama's youngest daughter, Sasha, is 9 years old.
9:17pm: Obama: "If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today. And here on Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit."
9:18pm: Obama: "May God bless and keep those we’ve lost in restful and eternal peace. May He love and watch over the survivors. And may He bless the United States of America."
9:18pm: President Obama returns to his seat, hugs the First Lady, who is wiping away tears.
9:21pm: Dr. Shelton leads a moment of silence.