West Chester remembers Sandy Hook
Three dozen marchers carry T-shirts with names and ages of the 26 shooting victims
WEST CHESTER » Three dozen marchers don’t want to forget the collective pain and suffering experienced with the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six lives were snuffed out in seven minutes.
The march marked the five-year anniversary of the mass killing. Twenty of the victims were children.
“The 5th Anniversary Remembrance” started out at The Charles A. Melton Arts and Education Center. Marchers held high T-Shirts with the names and ages of each shooting victim.
The procession of about three dozen members of the organizations Gun Sense Chester County, Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence and Delaware County United to Prevent Gun Violence, proceeded to march up Market Street and hold a second brief ceremony at the steps of the Historic Chester County Courthouse.
“No man is an Island,” the poem by John Donne, was read, including the words, “For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.”
Each victim’s name and age was mouthed and a hand bell was rung to mark their passing.
Twenty-six years ago, Starr Cummin Bright was randomly shot in a church. She detailed her long and difficult recovery efforts.
“This can’t go on,” she said, “We can’t continue to lose children like this.
“This doesn’t make any sense. What happened to me can happen to anybody. I am a gunshot survivor.”
Coatesville’s Mike Young carried a shirt with the name, Josephine Gay, a 7-year-old Sandy Hook victim.
Young said the experience was emotional.
“Overall, it is sad that this young life was taken away,” Young said.
Ann Colby-Cummings, chair of the board of directors of the 400-member Gun Sense Chester County, said that people should remember.
Colby-Cummings supports universal background checks for all gun purchases.
“Is not every life lost unnecessarily to a gunshot a tragedy?” she asked, “One worthy of reflection and the question, ‘How might we have avoided this?’”
Colby-Cummings answered the question.
“We can set a sorely needed example in our divided nation by coming together to listen to diverse viewpoints and to identify common ground and work to implement change in areas there is already agreement.”