The community received long-awaited news last week from the Sheriff’s Office that suspects had been arrested in connection with the holiday vandalism at the city park.
Businesses, organizations and individuals had put careful, creative consideration into their lighted displays, not to mention long hours and personal expense.
And it paid off in a big way.
Anyone who showed up for the fireworks and park lighting event can attest to the heartwarming experience of celebrating the season collectively, yet safely in our cars, not spreading the virus.
We’d lost so many of our traditional Christmas festivities — Sunday school programs, choir cantatas, school concerts and more.
This felt right. And it was safe. All was well.
Until someone destroyed the park displays … not just in one thoughtless act, but several.
As a community we shared the pain and outrage with the victims whose displays were destroyed.
We wanted justice, and we wanted the perpetrators to pay. Instinctively we believed we’d feel better once someone was punished.
But now that charges are filed, I can’t say I feel better,
Working on the news story, I found that my personal reaction wasn’t vindication.
Rather, I was heart-broken.
Somehow, I hoped the vandals would be from out of town with no ties to our community. … It’s easier to hate someone we don’t know.
But we do know the perpetrators accused in the holiday crime spree. They go to school with our children and grandchildren, and we sit in the bleachers with their parents and grandparents.
They have good parents in God-fearing homes, and their brush with the law is unnerving and disappointing.
But this doesn’t have to be the end of the story.
For the juveniles or for us as community members.
We’re known not by our mistakes but by how we learn from them and grow to be better people.
It’s true for kids, too, and now would be a good time to embrace the concept with our accused vandals.
Similarly, our community is defined not by its failures but by how it rises above hardships to do better and be better.
We’re right to feel good that justice is served, but a few harsh remarks on the Star Herald Facebook page made me cringe,
We’re better than that.
If we subscribe to the village concept of raising children, we can all play a role toward a happy ending.
Let’s withhold judgment (Jesus instructed the ones without sin to throw the first stone) and embrace the concept of forgiveness.
The vandals have an opportunity to learn and grow from their mistakes and hopefully make things right with their victims. Let’s give them space to do that.