On Friday at work there was a Celebration of Life for a colleague who died recently from cancer. It started as breast cancer and ended up being in her bones and lots of other places, too. The ceremony was well attended, a tree had been planted and her friends and family were telling stories about her from the podium.
Meanwhile our city has been wracked by gang violence with an escalation of shootings in the last two weeks. We have been awake at 3 am listening to 1, 2, 3, ..., 6 police cars streak down the street from the nearby station. A shooting and a raid have taken place within yards of work. Another shooting led to the victim driving past our house to the fire station.
But that isn't the contrast I speak of. On Friday we were all out on the lawn at work listening to stories about Ann. I looked up to see 4 police walking across the lawn and realized they were on a mission. As I realized this and looked over to see where they were headed, one started running and they all drew their guns and shouted for their "target" to get down on the ground. Meanwhile we all stood, fearfully watching this, but still listening to the speaker celebrate Ann's life. They cuffed him, put him in the car and drove away. We stayed where we were celebrating her life. The approximately 15 police, in uniform and under cover, went into the building to continue their work. And we stayed on the lawn, by the new tree, having our memorial for a colleague. We did not allow gang violence to take this day away from Ann, her family or her friends.
3 comments:
So sorry to hear about your friend as well as all the gang violence. I am thankful that you all are safe and have been praying for you since your Aunt Betty told me.
Robert, what are you doing in the picture? Is that the way you had to listen to the game? Glad I didn't come out to listen to it, I would still be there :-)
Aunt Betty
No, just doing some fine-tuning, Robert
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