How could anyone steal from a memorial garden for victims of weapon violence?

Terz McCleary had a few words of uncharacteristic choice for those who stole the solar lanterns in the 51st Street and Woodland Avenue corner, a space built by the mothers of the victims of the homicide to honor the Filadelfeni lost as a result of the violence of the weapons. And it is worth each one.

But while I was looking at video McCleary posted on Facebook on Wednesday evening, after the painful moment, discovered theft, a word echoing in my mind: Why?

I’m not naive. Neither women who experienced one of the most serious losses imaginable. Bad things happen. In fact, at this moment there are bad things too often, so some could even say that in the great scheme of things: what are some lights?

But this is the idea. At a time when cruelty flows into our daily lives, often perpetuated by people with Too much power and too little humanityWhy do we have to add to each other’s suffering? Why target a place meant to heal? Why deepen the pain for women who are already saddened by so many losses? Why?

“It is something I did to honor your loved ones lost in violence in Philadelphia, and this is what they believed about us,” McCleary can be heard saying in the video watched hundreds of times.

I chronicled mothers Dream for many years of a memorial garden. When I visited the site a few days before their November great openingIt was impossible not to get excited about what they were creating. They cleaned a rectangular patch of donated land. They dug the holes for the trees and had thousands of people written by sons and daughters in permanent marking on River Rocks.

Mothers related to the pain of the healing botanical garden were quite literally built with the blood, sweating and tears of women.

In the fog of pain and anxiety, it is not a small miracle that these women have not only found the power to continue, but to increase a Beard This blossomed in a south oasis -Philadelphia.

The visitors of the garden are greeted by a plaque that writes: “We remember them.” A brick path leads to a hand of trees surrounded by memorial rocks. Before slipping, four solar lanterns illuminated wooden benches, intended for comfort and contemplation.

As far as McCleary knows, no one witnessed theft and did not disturb her to refer to a police department already overwhelmed. However, she is worried that thieves will continue to target a garden that should be outside the limits.

While talking to McCleary this week, I couldn’t remember a conversation that I had with another mother in the garden.

Deemika Brown’s 26 -year -old son Terrell Arnold Jr. was shot and killed on September 29, 2020. On the day I spoke, she held a photo with him while she remembered the yields and flows of her own pain after Arnold – a three -year -old father was killed not far from his West Philadelphia home.

Brown He told me a rescue line in the other mothers of the victims of the homicide. And then, he found a sanctuary at the garden.

“I really took something dark and put a light,” Brown said.

Like many of us, I feel my way through these dark days, trying everything I can to counteract a world of growing and confusion with care and compassion.

And maybe because of this, I found this kindness -to commit it, to witness, to root it -it means more now than ever.

I was not surprised when, even in the heat of the moment, McCleary promised to replace the purchased lights for about $ 50 on Amazon.

“I just want to know that they didn’t discourage us,” she said. “We will not let them discourage or dishonor our children.”

And, ok, maybe this part it is naive. But I still hope that who took the lights could have a change of heart and will return them. Or that others could enter with little help and encouragement to remind them of these mothers, and in this process, all there are many more people eager to bring light to the dark than those trying to snatch it.