Dear Source,
I think our community needs to have more articles or opportunities to put a "human face" on the tragedy that's engulfing us. This is especially true of our young people. I wonder sometimes if they comprehend what it means to kill someone; for someone to die.
The permanence of it. Maybe they need to see the dead bodies in the morgue. Do they realize that the person who is killed or maimed had a future; some potential to do good and, more important, was loved by someone(s) and will be missed.
Maybe they need to spend some time talking with the loved ones of the victims or, as in the case of the young man your paper features, talking with the victims themselves. Will it help to stop the violence if they feel the pain and the love? What will help them to appreciate and respect the humanity of other human beings?
Congratulations on putting a human face on another tragedy.
Rosalie Ballentine
