I passed by the flowers, the signs, and the memorials near the Walmart in El Paso twice during the month of August.
The first time, on August 6, there were reporters, satellite dishes with mobile remote vans, chaplains, and people silently praying. There was a woman who was holding a sign that read, “Free Hugs.” I went up to her and said that her sign might be the most important one there.
We may not realize how much expressions of love and concern, including hugs, beginning with the earliest days in our lives, can enable us to build positive relationships and lead us to reject hatred and violence.
On August 3, in El Paso, Texas, and early on August 4, in Dayton, Ohio, two very different individuals, harboring a desire to commit violence, did not see human beings in front of them. They cared nothing for the people whose lives they abruptly ended.
El Paso and Dayton community members are moving forward while engaging in acts of remembrance and resolve.
People from Las Cruces joined their El Paso neighbors in a vigil held on the night of August 4 at Ponder Park. The City of Las Cruces organized a local gathering on August 5. About 60 people joined us at Temple Beth-El for a spiritual response and memorial service on August 7.
I joined my fellow Jewish singer/songwriter Alison Westermann in providing music at an event at the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center on August 4. Manuel and Patricia Oliver, parents of Joaquin Oliver, one of the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, had already planned to visit El Paso so that Manuel could create a mural on the outside of the Center’s building. Participants in a nearby vigil in El Paso (to remember the shooting victims) marched in silence to the Las Americas Center for the mural dedication. Manuel Oliver finished his work with the words “El Paso No Esta Solo.”
Nor are we alone. When I again visited the memorial near the Walmart on August 22, I saw many signs that bore messages which encourage us to connect with one another to offer support and hope:
- Love still lives here
- We are the future and the future is full of love. Sincerely, the Youth of El Paso
- We will push back against boundless hate, and rebuild ourselves with boundless love.
- We are El Paso: White, Black, Mexican, Asian...Color doesn’t matter, Religion doesn’t matter. We love! We are united! We are together! We are family! We are one!
- Hate has no place! We will never forget!
- Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. (Martin Luther King, Jr.) I choose love!
- The Lord is close to the broken-hearted. He rescues those whose spirits are crushed (Psalm 34:18)
- Believe there is good in the world.
- Where there is hate, let us find love; where there is injury, let us find healing; where there is despair, let us find hope; where there is darkness, let us find light; where there is discord, let us find unity. (Based on a prayer of St. Francis of Assisi)
And if I were to add a sign of my own, I would say: “May we remove the borders and walls around our hearts so that we will walk, side-by-side, towards a place of true peace, soon, in our time.”
No comments:
Post a Comment