Newtown to Uvalde: ‘We are with you’
Looking up at the audience, the Rev. Matthew Crebbin of Newtown Congregational Church encouraged them to envision a day when places that children occupy are safe all the time, and no harm comes to them.
NEWTOWN — The mood was solemn Thursday evening as several hundred people sat in the pews and lined the back of Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown.
The community came to a vigil to remember the 19 children and two teachers killed in Tuesday’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas.
The Rev. Matthew Crebbin of Newtown Congregational Church, who was one of about 10 speakers during the evening, said while the tragedy occurred in Texas, the sorrow can be felt in every community, everywhere.
We “weep together as one people — for all the dear ones who have been lost to us — our sons and daughters, wives and sisters, fathers and brothers, friends and neighbors near and far ... It matters not that they came from Uvalde or Buffalo, Newtown or Hartford, Bridgeport or Tuscan, Oak Creek or Oakland, Littleton or Virginia Tech, Nickel Mines or New York City,” he said. “The gun has taken far too many of your precious children.”
Looking up at the audience, he encouraged them to envision a day when places that children occupy are safe all the time, and no harm comes to them.
“Even as grief beyond measure wells up within us on this day, we dare to dream of a nation — one nation — where city streets and suburban playgrounds are places of safety and peace — a nation where the school gunfire is stilled and laughter of children fills the air,” Crebbin said.
The vigil was hosted by the Newtown Action Alliance and Newtown In-*
terfaith Council.
Miriam Azeez, 16, of Newtown, who came with her mother, Eman Beshtaawaii of the Al Hedaya Islamic Center in Newtown, recited a poem that brought a standing ovation.
In the poem, called “When I Grow Up,” Azeez spoke of the lost innocence of children who were killed in senseless tragedies and how young children’s lives need to be protected.
She referenced the killer in the Texas tragedy, and
his path into the elementary school.
“Inside this hive. We let inside. A bee killer. He waited. For his resentment to manifest into hatred,” she wrote. “He is not a bee. He has no fuzz. No clear motive. He uses his stinger ... An apex predator. A monster.”
In her speech, Po Murray, chairman of the Newtown Action Alliance & Newtown Action Alliance Foundation, referenced the Sandy Hook tragedy nearly
a decade ago, and said the Newtown community understands and feels the pain and suffering of the Uvlade community.
“We know too well what the Uvalde community is growing through right now,” Murray said. “Newtown and Uvalde will be forever connected by shared tragedies that have ripped the hearts out of so many in the nation and in the world.”
She urged those in the audience to continue their
advocacy efforts to “keep America’s children and families safe.”
She said while they have made a difference, more is to be done.
“I urge us to continue to support the surviving families and communities that have been impacted by gun violence in all corners of America and continue to fight for change,” Murray said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said there are no words to describe “the horror, the searing pain, the haunting sorrow that will last a lifetime with families who have lost their children. It will leave a hole in their hearts, in their homes, in their communities.”
He then stepped back in time a decade ago to describe what he felt during the Sandy Hook tragedy.
He sent a message to Uvalde: “We are with you. We are here.”
He said the Newtown community came together during that time and showed its strength.
“The good of the first responders who in Sandy Hook who rushed into the building, the community that came together to put stars on the roof of the firehouse, who rebuilt the school ... who rode their bikes from right outside here down to Washington, D.C., year after year. And who told us love wins,” Blumenthal said. “Love wins.”
After the vigil, a quiet candlelight procession headed to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun lobby group at 11 Mine Hill Road.