Horror at Semester’s End

We heard the news from Brown last night with horror. Two students killed by a gunman and several others wounded. My mind raced back to the spring of 2009 when our beloved student, Johanna Justin-Jinich, was murdered while working at the campus bookstore. The shock and disbelief, the sadness and fear (while the gunman was still at large), consumed our lives at that time. The memory remains indelible.

Today is also the unhappy anniversary of the killing of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Thirteen years ago, a gunman cut short the lives of little kids and their teachers with shocking ferocity. Since then, school shootings have become an all too familiar feature of American life.

And now our friends at Brown have suffered this terrible tragedy. We don’t know much more about the incident as I write on Sunday morning, horrified also by the news of a terrorist attack on Jews celebrating Chanukah in Sydney, Australia. Violence against those studying, violence against those celebrating… We bear witness to these awful events, and we do what we can to prevent future calamities. We remember as we commit to turning away from the paths of violence. We remember as we work for peace.

When Kari and I walked Lola this morning, we took a moment to gaze at the small tree we planted in dear Johanna’s memory all those years ago. This morning it is wrapped in the season’s first snow, and yet it grows, it grows.