To Tyler Clementi 18, Seth Walsh 13, Asher Brown 13, Raymond Chase 19, Caleb Nolt 14...
In a better world, I bet we could have been friends, we could have been best friends. I am sure I would have delighted in the miracle of each of you. Had I known you.
The truth is though, I don't know you nor did your tormentors. They failed to recognize your special creation, the God created image fused into your very skin, the love that formed the arches and structures of your soul. They did not see that you were a child of God, and a person of worth. In a better world, I could pity them that they never really met you... but I do not live in a better world, and all I feel towards them is anger... all I feel is pain. There is a mission to be done, a miracle God ordained for you to accomplish, a place in the world that will be forever empty because of the loss of you. We never will know how the world would have been changed through your life journey. It was simply taken from us and suffocated in a never ending wave or personal abuse and hate. I am so sorry the world did not savor the mystery of you. it is truly our loss.
We are in so many ways responsible for what happened to you. Though you were loved by many of your family and friends, completely and truly, there were far to many of the rest of us who buried your pain under a deep blanket of apathy and ignorance. I'm sorry that the generations before you failed to create a better world. Forgive us, we don't know what we are doing.
I wish I could say that I didn't feel some anger towards you also. I hate that you left this wide world without you. I hate it for your family, and the people who loved you. I cannot imagine what they go through each day... but this pain and this anger will diminish. It will falter because I also understand. Your families understand. Your friends understand. The suffering was overwhelming, the loneliness too intense. You got lost, we all know that that can happen. When you see our anger I hope that you understand that at these moments there is more than enough anger to go around.
I also promise you this... We will try harder to teach people they are valuable. We will work harder to love them. We will reach still further in hopes that one fine morning, you and all those like you, these God created God loved souls, will be so understood, so valued, that they will accomplish all life had for them to accomplish, and thereby transform the world. We will fight the evils and oppression, the bullies and those who hate. We will lay aside the old weapons of war and discord, and fight instead with, beauty, peace, truth, and righteousness. This is the new thing that will grow from the ashes of this tragedy. In this renewed quest towards love, we will reclaim the loss of your life. We will turn these Good Friday Realities, into Easter Glories. This is my promise to you.
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, Yes... They will rest from their labors.
