Sometimes there are no answers. Sometimes there are no words. In times like these we often struggle to find the right thing to say and a simple solution to the problem. But tragedies evade words, and circumstances are many times beyond our control. I don’t know if I will ever be able to communicate my feelings as eloquently as President Lincoln did on the battlefield of Gettysburg, but the same emotions of senseless violence and human suffering pervade me.

I know what I can do, what all of us should do. We must do everything we can to help the families involved in this tragedy. We must guarantee the parents, wives, brothers, sisters and innocent children that their dreams did not die when their loved ones were taken from them. We must reach out to those around us, the troubled souls, and help them to find the path toward peace. We must break this cycle of violence in our country, in our city, in our homes, and in our hearts.

Maybe someday this type of violence will be a relic of the past. It may not happen in our lifetime or the lifetime of our children. But, there is no reason – there is no excuse – for those of us who have lived through this tragedy not to dedicate a small portion of our lives to realizing that day, when these senseless shootings are a footnote in history.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”  Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.