TIME

How the Sandy Hook families give me strength, five years later

A memorial for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting stands outside a home in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2013

ON DEC. 14, 2012, 20 FIRST GRADERS AND SIX EDUCATORS were murdered by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. President Obama and I still talk about how that day was the saddest day we had in the White House.

Five years later, the families of the victims are the definition of character, consequence—and courage.

And I know it has taken courage. I

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