President Obama taped an anti-gun violence message for the 2016 ESPY Awards show praising Zaevion Dobson, the 15-year-old football player from Knoxville, Tenn., who died in December after he shielded a group of girls from a spray of bullets.
“Zaevion gave his life to save someone else’s. What’s our excuse for not acting?” Obama will say in his message to the sports award show.
“We have to ask ourselves: Is this the world we want our kids to grow up in?” he asked. “Are we just going to accept these tragedies as the price of our freedom and move on?
“It’s up to all of us to build a country that’s worthy of Zaevion’s promise,” Obama added. “That’s what we owe him. That’s what we owe all our kids.”
Dobson is being honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
Wednesday afternoon, Obama convened a four-hour meeting with police, community and civic leaders to discuss gun violence and distrust between law enforcement and minority communities.
On Tuesday, he was the featured speaker at the memorial service for the five Dallas police officers who were gunned down by a racially motivated sniper on Thursday.
Vice President Joe Biden is presenting the 2016 Jimmy V Perseverance ESPY to long-time television sports reporter Craig Sager, who is battling cancer.
