President Speaks At Arizona Shooting Memorial

President Barack Obama is telling Americans he wants the country to live up to the expectations of a 9-year-old girl.

Christina Taylor Green was among the six people killed in what authorities say was an assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., last weekend. Green had just been elected to her student council, and at a memorial service last night, Obama told a crowd of thousands that he wants America’s "democracy to be as good as she imagined it."

He called on Americans to honor the victims of Saturday’s shootings by trying harder to be compassionate and civil. Obama said we may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but "how we treat one another is entirely up to us."

The president implored Americans to talk to each other "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds."