I see hope

I literally grew up somewhere between “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and Annie Dillard’s “An American Childhood” (a 1987 best-seller about Pittsburgh’s East End, also home to David McCollough). Lucky by birth, time and place, I was surrounded by the American Dream — at least I thought so until Saturday, when tragedy struck at the Tree of Life synagogue just blocks from my childhood home.

The jarring news of that tragedy defies words or explanation — painfully poignant for Pittsburghers and Americans. It was most ironic that the grieving that occurred the next day by an overflow crowd at nearby Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall, built to honor Civil War heroes, featured the words of America’s first Republican president emblazoned on the wall behind those speaking. Those words contradict so often the tone or compassion of America’s current Republican president.

Words count. I see hope — the heroism of the first responders and emergency personnel, the community and its leaders and all religions speaking in solidarity, pulling together to unite. It was heartening to see humanity gathering Sunday night and especially to hear about members of the local Catholic church processing to the Tree of Life synagogue after Sunday Mass singing, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me!”

The closing lines of the Gettysburg Address, not much longer than a tweet, echo above the heinous events and words that swirl about us and flow from that other resident of Pennsylvania Avenue: “…that government of the people, by people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Let us highly resolve with Lincoln that these shall not have died in vain.

BRIAN WHITE SR.

Franklin Park