20 April, 19 April, 16 April

OKC was twelve years ago yesterday, Columbine eight today, and the tragic VA-Tech Massacre only four days ago. And stil we remember.

I don’t know what it is about Columbine that still has such an impact or me. We were a Catholic school so there was a prayer/memorial service and never has one mass gathering that I have been a part of been so sad. So shockingly sad. I was in chorus at the time so we sang at this memorial service. Sang is a stretch of a word. We sobbed our way through that service, standing in front for the whole church to see. Normally we would have cared — ‘oh my gosh, I’m crying in front of 400 people’ — but on that day we found comfort in our tears and comfort in the words of a poem that someone had written. A poem whose oft repeated phrase was Columbine, friend of mine. A beautiful poem about loss and remembering whose words escape me all for that phrase.

I told a friend of mine this not two days ago, but the OKC memorial is so beautifully poignant in its silence. There’s such a beautiful comfort in that memorial and a certain jarring all at the same time.

There is always that jarring when members of our nation turn against one another. And there is always comfort to be found in those same citizens who rise up and find the strength to be one voice of hope.

We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.

May we look to the skies for our hope, our friends for our comfort, and from both may we somehow have the strength to always remember.

May we remember these terrible crimes and the tragic loss of the promise and hope these lives had to offer. In this constant state of remembering, in these acts of terrible crimes, may we as a human race always carry the capacity come together and say, enough is enough.

May we remember them in the hopes that it does not happen again, and that should it ever happen again, we will again rise together as one voice and vow to never let any of them ever be forgotten.