Beautiful post from an Ottawa vigiler.
*warning - there are graphic images on some of the webpages linked to in this post.
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by catholic mouse (ottawa vigil)
I find a spot on the sidewalk, next to three sisters with umbrellas and a man with a sign.
Already, I’m starting to freeze.
(Is it the temperature, or the knowledge of what has happened right under my nose?)
A stream of the everyday – cars, trucks, passersby – flows up and down the street.
(Cunningham’s “our streets run red” quote* comes to mind. I shiver.)
A girl about my age makes eye contact with me from the bus window.
(What could she be thinking?)
A pre-Halloween princess scrambles to catch up with her mother, across the road.
(You shouldn’t have to see this, sweetheart. Would that there was no need for…us.)
“Hail Mary, full of grace…” from the three beside me. Wet streaks down my nose and cheeks.
(Father, forgive us, for we know not what we’ve done.)
I feel like time has stopped for the few of us.
(Life goes on for the rest…can’t you see something is wrong!? We shouldn’t NEED to be here!)
I don’t need this…my biggest concern today should be grades and parties, not genocide!
(The apathy is killing me. But am I begging them to stand up so I don’t have to?)
A man in a silver car – he pauses, looks at us, shrugs and drives away.
(What does he know?)
Behind us, a little boy, so full of love for his life, laughs and runs from his big sister.
(How many more will be denied moments like this because WE can’t act?)
Another man looks out from his van…a split-second-glance, a dropped jaw, and he’s off.
(What is he unable to face?)
A young father stops his stroller in front of the door. He looks up…way up…to the third floor!
(Were they two of the lucky ones?)
A couple stops to peer into the window of the jewelry store.
(I want to shout at them – “Have you ever thought about the building next door?”)
A pair of teenage girls can hardly walk for laughing…at…whatever was on my mind at 15.
(How many of their sisters and friends have been inside?)
I close my eyes and try to pray again.
(Oh…God…how could this be happening?)
A few more tears…this may be the only time I have openly grieved for what the world has lost.
(And even more, for those who do not know enough to care, or care enough to know.)
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*"the sewers of our cities run red with the blood of our children.” - gregg cunningham
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