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WHY THE
GATHERING?
"Why" is a question that has become
sickeningly familiar to us. It is a question that we have asked ourselves
every time the unspeakably tragic news of school violence has reached our
families, our towns, our televisions. We have asked ourselves why, we have
asked the perpetrators why, we have asked God why. Why Moses Lake, why Paducah,
why Jonesboro, why Littleton. Only yesterday, it seems, they were normal
cities and towns many of us had never heard of. Why Arnie, why Kayce, why
Britthney, why Lauren. Only yesterday they were normal children full of hope.
Why my child, why my neighbor’s child, why my school. To those "whys",
only God knows the answer.
But to this "why", we know the answer.
The gathering is for our children – all of our children. It is for those
who are now in God’s hands, it is for those who were spared by a fraction
of an inch or a fraction of a second, it is for those who lived these tragedies
from far away, never believing it could happen in their schools. Our children
are the most beautiful things in our lives. Nothing can surpass the joy of
seeing our children blossom; nothing can surpass the devastation of knowing
they will never come home. And the gathering is for parents everywhere, to
pray and to make it our purpose to spare any more families the unthinkable.
And it is because we care.
While not all of us have known the
anguish of losing a child to senseless violence or the anguish of not knowing
for hours whether or not our child had been taken, those of us who helplessly
watched from far away are here to say we care. We are here to say we want
to help, because we realize that it is only by the grace of God that our
towns and our children were spared. Yes, we are here because we care.
We remember the sick feelings in
our souls as we watched the solemn faces of reporters tell us you were living
every parent’s worst nightmare. We didn’t know you as friends but
we did know you as parents. We remember the uncontrollable tears as we heard
the names and saw the faces that made your losses so real to us. We remember
the urge to run to your sides in your time of greatest need. We remember
the anger and frustration as we heard of signs that should have been heeded
by parents who had forgotten that attention to their children was their most
important responsibility.
The purpose of our gathering is
not, however, to point fingers of blame or dwell on what might have been.
It is to enjoy the new friendships that have been created, and to share in
renewed hope. It is to learn from the mistakes of the past and take positive
steps so that we may be alert to the signs of impending trouble and act on
those signs. It is to prepare ourselves to plant that ounce of prevention
– because we know that for our grief there can be no cure.
Now let us pray that from our
friendships will come peace in our lives, and that together we can make a
difference. Until we meet, God bless you.
Michael Cohen
Stephanie Curtis Charlene Butolph Byron Lee Faeylyn Wylder |
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