What does your role as a Congresswoman entail? How do you manage the different aspects of your role? As a country we have got to do something about the issue of gun violence because it feels like our flags are flying at half mass more than at full mast these days.

I’m deeply sorry for all the victims of Pittsburgh. I was on a run today and I saw the flags were yet again flying at half mass. The Pittsburgh tragedy must have deeply affected you. I decided that the only way you can change that is if you change the kind of people who are going to Washington, DC, so I ran a long-shot four-month campaign against a 24-year incumbent, and I won.Īs a Jewish person in this political climate, following the shooting in Pittsburgh, that was meaningful for me to hear. Moreover, the man who had represented this community took a check from the National Rifle Association (NRA) only two days after that shooting.

It really felt like you couldn’t have that level of hateful rhetoric and government dysfunction and not expect to see it manifest itself in acts of violence in your community. Then, somebody walked into a nightclub in my community and took the lives of 49 innocent individuals. I had the opportunity to work in public service after 9/11 and I think in 2016 with that as sort of my background, I was dismayed at the hateful rhetoric that I was hearing, I was concerned about the fact that government wasn’t functioning because of how hyper-partisan and gridlocked it was.

I am a refugee and an immigrant, and someone who really loves this country.

Grace and Grit by William Murphy